Axis Bank-India deploys 200 cash deposit machines. Try it now and provide your feedback.

8 points about Axis Banks' move to deploy 200 Cash Deposit Machines.

1. Axis Bank, is India's third largest private Bank, with a physical presence of 1300+branches and 7600+ ATM's.
2. To reduce the manual processing of Cash, it has announced deployment of 200 cash deposit machines.
3. The CDMs' have been installed in various branches across 90 cities in the country.
4. The CDMs' provide to its customers a 24 x 7 convenience of cash deposit with instant credit of all successful transactions.
5. The CDMs' will separate the notes denomination-wise, count and displays it for the customer’s confirmation before crediting the account.
6. A receipt slip is issued after each deposit made confirming the transaction.
7. The target is to add another 350 more such machines in the next 6 months.
8. The deployment of CDMs' will mean that the manual cash deposit transactions at the branch will be diverted to the automated environment.

What is a Cash Deposit Machine ?

In simple terms, the Cash Deposit Machine (CDM) is a self-service terminal that lets bank customers to make cash deposits.

Naturally, all successful transactions are immediately credited and customers will be issued an advice slip confirming the transaction.

3 safety tips for transacting at CDMs'

a) Do not publicize that you are making a Cash Deposit.

b) Do deposit only during day-time.

c) Preserve the Receipt, take a xerox or scan and store it.

RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) – India's Large Value ePayment System open up to 20.00hrs on 31/03/2012.

This has been done in view of:-

• the expected huge volumes on 31^{stMar 2012,}
• 31^st Mar 2012 being the last working day for financial institutions
• 31^st March 2012 being a Saturday

Reserve Bank of India, DPSS has announced that RTGS will be open up-to 20.00hrs for Customer Transactions and upto 22.00hrs for Inter-Bank Transactions.

The announcement has been made in advance to enable all the participants I.e Bank Branches, Bank's customers, Bank's Staff, IT Support to be prepared for the extended window.

Bank's Treasury usually does not function on Saturday, but on 31^st March 2012, have to make an exception, and be tracking the RTGS Outwards/Inwards of their respective banks.

RBI by announcing the extended timings two days earlier has demonstrated its willingness to go the extra mile, to ensure customer delight.

Now, it is up to the Bank's customers to make the best of this extension.

4 top advantages of this extension :

1. No last minute surprises for the Participants.

2. Resources can be planned better, either by Banks or the Bank's customers.

3. Piling up of messages at the various Payment Gateways will be minimized.

4. Encourage customers to migrate to Safe ePayments

Evolving Customer friendly Payment Systems in India – a continuing agenda

Today's Post is on the Inaugural address by Shri G.Padmanabhan, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India on the occasion of the launch of Mobile Banking services by Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd on 9 January, 2012 at Chennai.

The complete Speech can be accessed at http://rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_SpeechesView.aspx?Id=652

Many new ideas in the Indian Payments Arena have been outlined in the speech.

On a quick reading, the ZERO LIABILITY/Limited Liability feature adopted by major credit card issuers in USA seems to be the highlight of the speech.

What is Zero Liability/Limited Liability feature in Credit Cards ?

In simple terms, Zero Liability can said to be a valuable benefit for consumers, virtually guaranteeing protection against card fraud.

Of course like all good things in life, Zero Liability has its own terms and conditions. The terms and conditions can said to be

1. of the Card Issuing Company I.e Visa or Master or American Express or Diners
2. of the Card Issuing Bank

There is a view that Indian credit cards holders should be offered the benefits of 'Zero Liability' feature. This has started and HDFC Bank Platinum Plus Credit Card holders and HSBC Gold Credit Card holders can enjoy this feature. It is to be noted that the 'zero liability', starts only the card holder informs his/her Bank the loss of the credit card has been reported to the Bank in writing or to the VISA / MasterCard Global Emergency Assistance Helplines.

A similar facility is offered by all Credit Cards Issuing Banks to their high-end credit cards.

To increase the confidence of the credit cards holders in credit card transactions, the speech suggests that the 'zero liability', feature be extended to all credit card holders as long as the customer has adhered to all the risk measures prescribed by the bank, but yet unauthorized transactions have taken place in his/her credit card account.

Hm, which bank will be the first one, to offer this facility.

Savings bank a/c number portability in India on anvil: Indian FinMin. This should be real by 2018

A simple definition of 'Portability' is a thing which can be carried or moved with ease. Portability in another sense is 'Capable of being transferred from one employer to another. Used of an employee benefit'.

In India, in recent times the word 'Portability', is familiar with Mobile subscribers and Health Insurance Policy Holders

Now, the word 'Portability', will be extended to the Banking Customers too. The Indian Finance Ministry is working on savings banks account number portability. Savings Banks accounts portability, will allow a customer to retain his account number while changing his bank.

Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal said, “We want to do it (savings a/c number portability). Right now there are some technical problems...we have identified them. We will overcome them soon," .

He was speaking after a meeting in the Ministry, which among others was attended by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, Finance Secretary R S Gujral and Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu. He said banks would have to work on identification code, know your customers (KYC) norms and core banking solution (CBS) for implementing the savings bank account number portability.

An idealistic Savings Account Portability Scheme should have following features : -

1. There should no change in the account number.
2. The account should be transferred withing 10 working days.
3. There should be no suspension in the account operations.
4. The existing Debit Card and Cheque Book can be continued to be used.
5. There should be no disruption in related electronic payment transactions i.e., RTGS/NEFT Credits, ECS Debits, etc.
6. There should be no disruption in the credit history of the account holder.

What is required for the Savings Account Number Portability to take off in India?

a) The Banks should be 100% on CBS(Core Banking Solution).

b) There should be uniform number of digits in the account numbers across all the participating banks.

100. A third-party KYC(Know Your Customer) organization responsible for certifying the adherence to KYC norms. A beginning has been made in SEBI regulated markets towards this end.
101. A robust Identification Code to recognize the savings accounts of Participating Banks. A start can be made by incorporating the MICR Code or the Pin Code in the new account numbers. 
     
     
     d) Robust Risk Management including Fraud prevention techniques.