Explore Business Standard
Banks
Four major banks -- Bank of Baroda, RBL Bank, Yes Bank and State Bank of India -- have approached the CIC objecting to the disclosure of information such as the list of defaulters and NPA, penalties and inspection reports, even as the RBI termed the records "liable to be disclosed" under the RTI Act. RTI applicants Dheeraj Mishra, Vathiraj, Girish Mittal and Radha Raman Tiwari had filed separate applications with the RBI, seeking information, such as the top 100 NPAs, willful defaulters of Yes Bank, the inspection report of the SBI and RBL, and documents relating to a Rs 4.34 crore monetary penalty imposed following statutory inspection findings from the Bank of Baroda, respectively, among others. These banks appealed before the Central Information Commission, after the bankers' bank found that the information sought by RTI Applicants could be disclosed under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. Information Commissioner Khushwant Singh Sethi referred the matter to a large
Bank employees' unions under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have threatened to go on a nationwide strike on January 27, demanding implementation of a 5-day week. If the strike materialises, it would have a significant impact primarily on the operations of public sector banks for three days in a row, as January 25 and 26 are holidays. At present, bank employees get off on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, apart from Sundays. Declaring the remaining two Saturdays as holidays was agreed between the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and UFBU during the wage revision settlement in March, 2024. "It is unfortunate that the government is not responding to our genuine demand. There would be no loss of man-hours because we have agreed to an extra 40 minutes working per day from Monday to Friday," UFBU said in a statement. Already, RBI, LIC, GIC, etc., are working for 5 days a week, it said, adding that the foreign exchange market, money market, stock exchanges
Thieves stole tens of millions of euros worth of property from safety deposit boxes inside a German bank vault that they drilled into Monday during the holiday lull, police said. Some 2,700 bank customers were affected by the theft in Gelsenkirchen, police and the Sparkasse bank said. Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson, said investigators believe the theft was worth between 10 and 90 million euros (USD 11.7 to 105.7 million). German news agency dpa reported that the theft could be one of Germany's largest heists. The bank remained closed Tuesday, when some 200 people showed up demanding to get inside, dpa reported. A fire alarm summoned police officers and firefighters to the bank branch shortly before 4 am Monday. They found a hole in the wall and the vault ransacked. Police believe a large drill was used to break through the vault's basement wall. Witnesses told investigators they saw several men carrying large bags in a nearby parking garage over the weekend. Video footage
With a view to improve monetary policy transmission, banks have been advised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to link loans to MSMEs to an external benchmark, the government has informed Parliament. The reset clause for loans has been reduced to three months under the external benchmark system. Further, to make the benefit of external benchmark-based interest regime available to existing borrowers, banks have been advised to provide a switchover option as per mutually agreed terms. Moreover, the government implements Quality Control Orders (QCOs) with exemptions and relaxations for MSMEs to ensure no disruption of domestic production, Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shobha Karandlaje in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. The Government of India, through Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Department of Consumer Affairs, implements, phase-wise, QCOs issued by line ministries with exemptions/relaxations for MSMEs, to ensure that such orders do not disrupt ...