First Edition of RBIQ - School from Thiruvanathapuram wins National Finals of RBIQ

                As promised by Reserve Bank of India, the first edition of RBIQ was conducted across India.

                The finals of RBIQ were held in National Library, Kolkata on 05/12/2012.

                It was a grand finale with the honors being taken by Chinmaya Vidyalaya HSS, Thiruvananthapuram. The runners-up were Maharishi Vidyamandir Public School of Guwahati were the runners up.

RBIQ is one more effort of the Reserve Bank of India towards spreading awareness about financial matters, especially among children so that they themselves becoming financially responsible citizens in the future, they can inspire their elders in the habit of savings and banking and other matters of finance.

                While giving away the prizes to the winners, Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India said that he was "humbled at the amazing range of information and knowledge that the participants displayed in answering the questions related to banking, finance and India". The Governor also said that he was delighted to see the excitement and the enthusiasm that RBIQ generated all over the country - from Jaipur to Visakhapatnam, Imphal to Vadodara, Kochi to Dehra Dun and Jammu to Patna.

The finale was attended by Deputy Governors and Executive Directors of the Reserve Bank as well as Chief Executives of a few public sector banks.

                As you are aware Reserve Bank has launched RBIQ this year for students in Classes 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th.

The event was open to schools all over India. The RBIQ was held over three months in 32 centres across the country. Of the more than 3000 schools invited, over 1600 schools participated. After zonal finals conducted in state capitals, the semi finals and finals were held over three days in Kolkata. Shri Barry O'Brien, noted quizmaster conducted RBIQ.

If you want to see the action of the intensive quizzing, please do tune into ZEE Business as the the semi final and final rounds of the RBIQ will be telecast on it between December 15, 2012 and January 15, 2013. 

A new eProduct – Receive funds to your ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card

            If you are holding an ICICI Bank Saving Bank account, you must have received an email from Shri Kusal Roy, regarding the launch of a new eProduct.

            The ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card is all the information the overseas sender requires to remit money to the associated ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card.

The highlights are:

01) Completely cashless transaction.

02)Amount is credited without minutes

03)Works 24*7, as there is no human intervention once the Sender remits the money.

04)NIL charges for the beneficiary, as all the charges are paid by the sender.

The above Product is built around 'Visa Fast Funds’, product.

The following are the Terms and Conditions

01) This service is regulated by the RBI and the following rules apply:

02)Remittance can only be received for purpose of personal maintenance. Business and investment transactions cannot be routed using this service.

03)A single transaction cannot exceed the Indian Rupee equivalent of USD 2,500.

04)Not more than 30 transactions can be received in a calendar year. As an added measure of safety, ICICI Bank will restrict the service to 2 transactions per month per beneficiary.

05)ICICI Bank additionally maintains its own risk and security profiling systems and reserves the right to decline suspicious transactions.

Go ahead and unlock the potential of your power-packed ICICI Bank Visa Debit Card!

The product should attract many takers, as the funds move from the Sender to the Beneficiary very fast and the Beneficiary no additional authentication to withdraw the funds from his/her accounts.

Re-disseminated by Prashant N. Banker by daytime, Blogger by night.

IMPS – Launch news in the 2nd week of September 2012

            In the 2^nd week of September 2012, 3 Banks with different IMPS sub-products have gone live.

01) On 13/09/2012, Central Bank of India has gone live on Internet Banking channel for IMPS transactions 

In January 2012, Central Bank of India had launched a ‘Go Green Campaign’. The main focus of the campaign was to motivate the customers to : -

- Opt for e-statements

- Use internet banking (24 x 7) for banking transactions

- Use e-voucher machine for transactions.

            As a give and take tool, the customers as well as the staff members were to be incentivized / rewarded for use of Green Banking.

            As there was tremendous response, the ‘Go Green Campaign’, was extended till July 2012, and now up to Dec 12.

During the initial campaign period, CBI could collect 4874618 Mobile Numbers, 2913817 PAN Nos and 146846 E-mail ids.

02)On 13/09/2012, Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank has gone live on IMPS.

The Brand name of PMC Bank’s IMPS is “Mobile Pay" and the slogan is “Baithe Baithe Ghar Pe Banking Ab Mobile Pay".

03)On 11/09/2012, Indian Bank has gone live on Internet Banking channel for IMPS transactions and also gone live on IMPS using Account No and IFS Code.

To encourage ePayments, Indian Bank has launched a new facility for it bank customers.  Indian Bank customers now make TNEB bill payment using mobile phones through SMS

Do you want to have your voice heard for the new BCSBI Code?

BCSBI is in process of drafting a new code for its member’s banks to comply. Change is only constant thing is this universe.

Go ahead and do it now

18/09/2012 – Point No 1

My viewpoint: -

Credit Card settlements / Loan settlements.

At times, the credit card customers/loan holders and the credit card issuers/ loan disbursement companies enter into an agreement to settle the credit card/loan dues. The card holder remits the due amount as per the settlements. Once the amount as per the settlement is received by the credit card issuer, the credit card issuer/loan disbursement company should not report to the credit reference agencies the card holder as an ‘overdue customer’ or ‘settled’, customer.

At present, it is observed that the credit card issuers agree for a settlement; receive the amount as per the settlement, but still report to the Credit Reference Agency as ‘overdue/settled’. This is not good customer service.

                In case it is not possible for the credit card issuers/ loan disbursement companies to provide a clean status to the Credit Reference Agencies than at the time of the settlement, au undertaking should be taken from the card holder/loan holder that it has been explained to him in detail that the information to the Credit Reference Agencies will be shown as ‘overdue/settled’, and in future it will be difficult to obtain any loan/credit card.               

Now file your Loan Applications online. Would you like to try?

One more step towards innovative customer service.

            Public Sector Banks in India, have been advised by Government of India-Ministry of Finance-Department of Financial Services vide Lr.No.F.No.11/17/2011-FI, to introduce the Online filing and tracking of Loan Applications.

            The major advantage of online filing is the increased transparency coupled with a tracking mechanism.

            As a pilot run, a group with officials drawn from Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank and Syndicate Bank was constituted to develop the necessary IT applications.

            The group developed and tested few IT applications in their respective banks. As the results were satisfactory, the online filing/tracking of loan applications was adopted by the above banks.

            As considerable work on development and implementation of these IT Applications was done by the Group, Department of Financial Services- MOF felt it would be better for all the PSB’s to adopt them, rather than develop on their own.

            This would lead to faster rollout of the online filing/tracking of loan applications and also the collective wisdom can lead to system efficiencies.

            Accordingly, PSB’s have been advised to integrate the IT Applications relating to online filing/tracking of loan applications with their bank’s system, by 31st August 2012. Banks may make the necessary modifications as required.

            A snapshot of loans for which online filing can be introduced are: -

Education Loan

MSME Loan

Vehicle Loan

Kisan credit card

Farm Mechanization loan

Dairy Development loan

Kalyani card

Housing Loan

Professional & Self Employed

Personal loan

            The bank customers to reduce the time in online filing should have all the required information and the scan copies of the documents, prior to the commencement of process in the respective banks website.

Once the application is filed successfully, the registration number will be displayed. Further tracking can be done on the basis of the registration number.

Bank of Baroda online Education Loan, Union Bank of India Education Loan, Syndicate Bank online Loans,

Directorate of Institutional Finance, Madhya Pradesh online loans, Allahabad Bank online MSME  Loan,