India

Indian banks are scrambling to raise the massive capital needed to comply with both Basel III and their own expansion plans.

Export-Import Bank of Malaysia has signed a collaborative deal with India's ICICI Bank and YES Bank, to further enhance Malaysia-India trade.

The Reserve Bank of India has approved Morgan Stanley's application to engage in commercial banking in India.

The Reserve Bank of India advised banks to implement more processes in dealing with unclaimed deposits.

Union Bank of India became the first bank to make electronic banking easier for the visually impaired with its "talking" ATM.

SBI Cards launched a 'signature' card targeted at the high net-worth individuals.

Union Bank of Colombo announced an interim dividend of 15 cents per share, further strengthening its premise in delivering stakeholder value.

India Post will soon foray into core banking solution and set up 24 ATMS in Assam.

Citigroup, Inc plans add one million new customers from India’s middle class as it expands its credit card business.

Any account holder with Ahli United Bank in Bahrain may now be able to wire money to an Axis Bank account holder in India using the Internet banking platform.

Uco Bank will focus on retail lending to boost margin and may cut growth in the next five years to use capital frugally.

India’s largest bank records an incredibly huge jump in profits after generous government support.

Commercial Bank of Ceylon's Islamic banking unit has opened a dedicated service point for 'Sharia Compliant Banking' at its Akkaraipattu branch.

City Union Bank hopes to register a 20-30 percent growth this fiscal amid challenging times. "We hope to maintain a growth rate between 20-30 per cent this year. At the beginning of last fiscal we thought the economic condition would improve during the first two quarters of the current fiscal. But going by the current trend we think the economy would hit the growth path during the beginning of the next financial year," said the the bank's managing director, N. Kamakodi. Announcing the bank's annual results for the year 2011-12, Kamakodi said the net interest margin is expected to go down by 10-20 basis points from the last year's level of 3.4 per cent. For the 2011-2012 fiscal, the bank posted an after-tax profit of Rs.280.25 crore on a total income of Rs.1,903.90 crore, up from Rs.215.05 crore and Rs.1,219.41 crore logged during 2010-11. The bank's total business was at Rs.28,563 crore as against Rs.22,243 crore done during 2010-11. For the period under review, City Union Bank's net non-performing assets scame down to 0.44 per cent from 0.52 per cent as on March 31, 2011. According to Kamakodi, the bank's profit is higher by Rs.10 crore last fiscal as the provisions towards doubtful debts came down to around Rs.57 crore from Rs.67 crore during fiscal 2010-11. On the restructuring of advances, Kamakodi said the bank had restructured only six loan accounts last year involving a total amount of Rs.38.63 crore. "The overall restructured loan portfolio is around Rs.268 crore, down from Rs.533 crore three years before,"  Kamakodi said. "Only Rs.13 crore has become bad out of our restructured accounts during the past three years. Ninety per cent of our loan book is covered by collateral security," Kamakodi added. For more, click here.

NPAs of Indian banks rose by 53.5% from Rs 39,200 crore as of March 2011 to over Rs 60,100 crore on March 2012.

Bharti Airtel customers will now be able to open savings account in Axis Bank through their mobiles and cash deposits, transfers and withdrawals.