State Bank of India signs up Reliance Money Infra as business correspondent

            In a big boost to Indian unbanked prospective customers, State Bank of India has signed up Reliance Money Infrastructure Ltd (RMIL) as one of its Business Correspondent.

            RMIL is party of Anil Ambani Group.  The deal was signed on 25/02/2014, but is effective from a back-date i.e 05/10/2013.

            As part of the deal RMIL on the Assets side can:

• can identify borrowers;
• collect, process, and submit loan applications;
• promote credit groups;
• take up post-sanction monitoring, follow-up,
• and recovery.

Apart from the above, RMIL as SBI’s service provider  

• collect small-value deposits;
• sell micro-insurance, mutual fund and pension products; and
• Receive and deliver small-value remittances.

At present, the agreement covers the following products:

• no-frill savings bank accounts through kiosk banking model;
• home loans/loans against property;
• auto loans; gold loans;
• SME loans;
• general purpose credit card;
• kisan credit card;
• current account;
• savings bank account (other than no-frill account);
• term deposit;
• recurring deposit;

The above products will be on a referral mode.  Additional products may be added by mutual consent. Products may be also amended from time to time.

The agreement binds RMIL to the Fair Practices Code for lending as also its own code for collection of dues.  In the absence of such a code, it should abide by the Indian Banks’ Association code for collection of dues and repossession of security.

The agreement clearly specifies that it is essential that the service provider refrains from action that could damage the integrity and reputation of the bank.

            RMIL or its employees should not resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical, against any person in debt collection efforts, including making threatening or anonymous calls or making false and misleading representations.

            As on date there are no specific certifications to be obtained by Business Correspondents employees. The employees engaged in Recovery Process should have undergone 100 hours mandatory training for the certificate course for DSA/DMA/Recovery Agents conducted by IIBF accredited institutions.

            As on date the details of this tie-up are yet to be mentioned on SBI website or Reliance Money website.

            As per the RBI guidelines, the following entities are eligible for appointment of  Business Correspondents (BCs) for banks:

• NGOs/ MFIs set up under Societies/ Trust Acts,
• societies registered under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Acts or the
• Cooperative Societies Acts of States,
• Section 25 companies that are stand alone entities or in which NBFCs, banks, telecom companies and other corporate entities or their holding companies did not have equity holdings in excess of 10 per cent,
• post offices ,
• retired bank employees,
• ex-servicemen ,
• retired government employees.
• Individual kirana/medical/fair price shop owners
• Individual Public Call Office (PCO) operators
• Agents of Small Savings Schemes of Government of India/Insurance Companies
• Individuals who own petrol pumps
• Retired teachers
• Authorised functionaries of well run Self Help Groups (SHGs) linked to banks
• Non deposit taking NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) in the nature of loan companies whose micro finance portfolio is not less than 80 per cent of their loan outstanding in the financially excluded districts as identified by the Committee on Financial Inclusion

Scope of Activities to be undertaken by BCs

The scope of activities undertaken by BCs are as under :

• Creating awareness about savings and other products and education and advice on managing money and debt counseling.
• Identification of potential customers
• Collection and preliminary processing of various forms for deposits including verification of primary information / data
• Filling of applications / account opening forms including nomination clause and submission to the Bank.
• KYC will also be completed by the BCs.
• Opening of no frill deposit accounts and other products as permitted from time to time by leveraging technology.
• Collection and payment of small value deposits and withdrawals; Min : nil; Max : as decided from time to time, per transaction.
• Receipt and delivery of small value remittances / other payment instruments.
• In respect of all such transactions, the BC/his agent will be authorized to accept / deliver cash either at his place of work or at any convenient location subject to the ceilings per customer  as decided from time to time.
• Furnishing of mini account statements and other account information, for a period of 3 months.
• Any other service on behalf of the Bank, duly authorized by the appropriate authority.
• In respect of all such transactions, the BC/his/her agent will be authorized to accept / deliver cash either at his place of work or at any convenient location subject to the ceilings per day / per customer as laid down.
• The Business Correspondents will be linked to a nearby branch (base Branch).
• Cross-selling of other financial products like insurance / mutual fund products / pension products / any other third party product, as and when they are assigned to do so.
• In case duly appointed sub-agents of BCs, BCs to take care of reputational risks involved in such appointments.

KotakJifi Account – 4,500+ signups in the first month

            The Kotakjifi Account is now 1 month old. In the last one month, 4,500+ customers boarded the Jifi bandwagon to experience the new-age banking.

            The feedback from the initial customers will assist Kotak Bank to further fine-tune the Jifi offerings.

           

Here are 7 points to make the most of your KotakJifi Account

01) Be a resident of the following cities:  Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune.

02)Choose a base branch which is nearest to your location

03)Keep all the necessary documents ready i.e  Identity Proof, Residence Proof and  Signature Proof

04)Invite yourself through Facebook credentials

05)Fill up the form by referring to the documents

06)Earn loyalty points by inviting your Facebook friends to be part of the Kotakjifi network

07)Try to maintain balances in multiples of Rs25,000/-, as this will fetch you a higher rate of interest

           

            

Aadhaar Acceptance Notification - Reserve Bank of India

            To open a bank account, one of the most important documents is the Proof of Identity Document and Proof of Address document.

            There are various types of documents which are accepted by Banks as Identity Proof or Address Proof.            

            Reserve Bank of India, vide Notification No RBl12012-131322 DBOD.AM L.BC. No. 65 I 1 41.0'1.001 12012-13 dt. Dec;ember 10,2012 has further clarified on Aadhaar as a document for both Identity and address proof.

            If the address on the document submitted for identity prospective customer is same as that declared by him/her opening form, the document may be accepted as a valid identity and address.

            Hence, if the address provided by the prospective customer in the account opening form is same as that on Aadhaar letter’ may be accepted as a proof of both identity and address.

In India, the facility of electronic transactions would continue till midnight on March 31, 2014

            Reserve Bank of India, in a Press Note, said all designated branches of agency banks and RBI Offices conducting government business will keep their counters open for extended hours on Saturday, March 29, and Monday, March 31, 2014 till 8.00 p.m.

            31/03/2014 is a Bank Holiday in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Goa. Hence the arrangement will apply in these states.

On Sunday, March 30, 2014, and on Monday, March 31, 2014 (at places where holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act has been declared), agency banks would keep select branches open for transacting government business at locations identified by them based on volume of transaction

            The extended hours are to greater convenience to tax payers, and facilitate government receipts.

Arrangements have also been made to conduct special clearing operations across the country. Centralised payment systems, such as, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) will also be operational on these three days (from March 29, 2014, to March 31, 2014).

The Ratnakar Bank Limited (NH4 Bank) is now RBL Bank

In 2010, Ratnakar Bank did the unthinkable, it purchased of some of Royal Bank of Scotland's India portfolio for an undisclosed amount, could hardly be described as an old-generation bank.

            In 2014, the bank christened itself as RBL Bank, with a brand new logo too.

The 2010 deal was driven by a team of professionals recruited mostly from foreign and other big private banks.

            Till 2010, Ratnakar Bank was known as ‘The Kolhapur-based lender or NH4 Bank’,  since a majority of its business comes from cities in and around the 1,235-kilometer-long National Highway that connects four of the 10 most populous cities in India from Pune to Chennai,

The new management team was led by Its chief, Vishwavir Ahuja, is the former CEO of Bank of America's India business; head of strategy and markets, Rajeev Ahuja, joined from Citi, and head of corporate and institutional banking, R Gurumurthy, has worked with Standard Chartered Bank. The senior leadership team also consists of professionals who have worked with Deutsche Bank, Bharti AXA Life Insurance and YES Bank.

The bank is backed by a host of domestic and global investors - HDFC, Norwest Venture Partners, Aditya Birla Private Equity and Samara Capital, to name a few - and is no less aggressive than some of its new-age counterparts.

The guiding principle of its future plans will be a strategy called NH4 to NH8. In essence it includes opening new branches in the hinterland along National Highway 8 and increasing its footprint outside of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa to the National Capital Region (NCR), Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Daman & Diu. Some success has already started coming its way. The bank's corporate banking revenue from NCR now accounts for almost a third of its wholesale banking business.

An interesting tag line of RBL Bank is ‘We offer Point-of-Service facility for KYC compliance - we can come to you!’