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Banks
ask RBI to relax pass book stipulation
Mumbai: Private banks have asked the Reserve Bank
of India to relax its recent stipulation that makes the
issue of passbooks compulsory and free-of cost to savings
bank account holders as this would add to their cost.
According to banking sources, the Indian Bank Association
has approached the RBI seeking relaxation of the stipulation
and has suggested that banks be allowed to charge a fee
for issuing passbooks.
While
public sector banks issue passbooks, large private and
foreign banks issue only statements. The RBI in a communication
issued last month had said a passbook was a ready reckoner
of transactions and being handy and compact, was far more
convenient to small customers than a statement of account
which had some inherent difficulties such as need for
filing, tallying of opening balance with closing balance
of previous statement, loss and delay in receipt of statements
etc. Therefore, it had advised banks to provide passbooks
to all savings bank account-holders (individuals). The
cost of providing such passbooks should not be recovered
from the customers, the circular had said. However, even
a month after the directive was issued, some banks have
not yet implemented it. Private and foreign banks issue
only quarterly statements of accounts. Their argument
is that customers can get details of their accounts from
ATMs, phone banking or Net banking.
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PNB
raises interest rates by 0.25-0.50 per cent
New Delhi: The Punjab National Bank has hiked interest
rates in between 0.25-0.50 per cent on fixed deposit rates
for a time slab of 180 days to less than two years.
The
move comes 10 days after the Reserve Bank of India increased
the repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.25 per cent. PNB is
sure of avoiding any asset liability mismatch by simultaneously
managing its interest spread, PNB Chairman S C Gupta said
in a release.
This
rate hike on domestic term deposits comes almost two months
after the last hike, effected by the bank on October 7.
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