Vijaya Bank launches online trading platform

Bangalore-based public sector lender, Vijaya Bank today announced that its base rate would be between 8 per cent and 8.5 per cent. “We have worked out our base rate as per the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India. It would be around 8-8.5 per cent,” Vijaya Bank chairman and managing director Albert Tauro said.

Talking to reporters, here on Wednesday, he said with the introduction of new rate structure, the bank may lose a small portion of its business. “But, we will have six months time to make adjustments and rework our rate structure,” he said.

Tauro said the bank is planning to come out with a number of new technology products. The bank is currently working out a new phone banking product and relaunch its mobile banking product with some changes. The bank today launched their Online Trading services platform jointly with IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd.

The trading platform for the online trading facility is provided by IDBI Capital and customers of the bank can now trade in equity, mutual funds, IPOs, at the click of a button, he said. The new facility is available 127 branches of the bank and extended to other branches in phases. Presently, the bank has 7,000 demat account holders and the bank is looking at doubling this number by end of this year, he said.

The new product, which is a 3-in-one account includes a SB account, demat and trading account. The bank will charge a one-time fee of Rs 550 to open this account.

The launch of new product coupled with other products launched in the recent days will help the bank to grow its non interest income by around 10 per cent during the current year, Tauro said. For the year ended March 2010, the bank reported a non interest income of Rs 680 crore, a growth of 10 per cent over the previous year.

Meanwhile, Mangalore-based private sector lender, Karnataka Bank has set its base rate at 8.75 per cent.