Urban Banks Bulletin

Friday, February 19, 2010

ALM TRAINING FOR UCB OFFICERS BY RBI

RBI will conduct a three day training programme (workshop) for the officers of Urban Co-operative Banks of Northern Kerala. The training programme will be held at ICM, Parassinikkadavu, Kannur on 22nd, 23rd and 24th of February 2010. Eminent faculties from RBI and other prominent institutions will conduct classes, seminars and presentations in the three day workshop. The main area covered by the training programme will be Asset Liability Management for the Tier I and Tier II UCBs.

RBI is also conducting a management development programme for the General Managers and Directors of UCBs on 24th February 2010 at the ICM campus at Parassinikkadavu.

After signing up of MOU between RBI and Kerala State Government, RBI have taken several steps to professionalise the employees of UCBs of the State. The Training on ALM and management development programme for the GMs and Directors of southern districts of kerala was conducted earlier this month.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Co-op banks feel new RBI norm blocks progress

Presidents of the Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) of the three districts of Mysore, Chamarajanagar and Mandya have appealed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to withdraw the new norm introduced recently reducing the NPA calculation period to 90 days from the earlier 180 days.
At a joint meeting in Mysore recently, heads of 14 UCBs have opined that the new norm was difficult to be implemented for a number of reasons. They have described the drastic reduction in NPA norm as too short a period for the loanees to pay their overdues within 90 days. This would particularly hit the middle and lower middle class whose numbers are generally high in the co-operative banks.
The number of women borrowers is also quite big and most of those who obtain loans are housewives or engaged in small jobs. Generally, they depend on their spouses. Apart from women, agriculturists have seasonal income and they repay in bulk when they sell their harvested produce and get big sums.
Professionals like advocates, doctors, auditors and small business community engage themselves in seasonal business. All these sections would be badly hit by the reduced NPA period.
Added to this, the present natural calamities have contributed towards high rate of overdue amounts making it impossible to recover the outstanding amounts immediately. They need more time to repay their loans and overdue amounts. Overall, the new norm affects all sections of clientele of the co-ops, they said.
These sections are generally prompt re-payers though they may not pay the installments regularly. They pay amounts in lumpsum when they get bulk amounts. The new norm would put pressure on them resulting in increase in overdue and heavy losses to the banks.
For the UCBLs, the NPA provision would be a double loss as they have to pay income-tax as well on the 33.3 per cent provision. When a loan becomes overdue after 90 days default, not merely the installment becomes NPA but also the entire loan amount, piling the NPA amount considerably. Because of the loanees default, the Bank would suffer heavily owing to the new NPA provision, affecting their profits and turning them sick over a period, Graduates’ Co-operative Bank President P V Narahari, who presided over the meeting, told Business Standard.
The UCBs have to deposit the earmarked provision amount with the District Co-operative Bank or the Apex Bank, which yields hardly 7 to 8 per cent interest. If utilised for the UCBs business, the same amount would earn 14 to 15 per cent interest. Here too, the UCBs are affected, he said adding overall the new NPA norm would fail to serve the RBI’s intention.
A delegation of the UCBs chiefs will meet the RBI authorities soon and request them to restore the previous norm of 180 days and help better growth of the co-operatives in the country, Director Anantharam added.
courtesy : business standard

Urban cooperative banks in Erode to be computer-linked soon

Karthik Madhavan

ERODE: More than 1.5 lakh account holders of urban cooperative banks in the district will soon get better and quicker service. The five banks with seven branches are being computerised.

Informed sources in the Cooperative Department here say Erode, Bhavani, Chennimalai, Gobichettipalayam and Sathyamangalam banks are in the process of computerising records, which are being verified by the software service provider.

Once the verification process is complete the data would be fed into computers at the head offices of the five banks. The systems will be networked with the seven branches.

The computers have been installed and networking is under way. The process is expected to be completed by February.

Once things are in place, the sources say, for customers operating their accounts, availing loans or making deposits will become quicker and easier. The processing time will come down.

For the computerisation process, the banks have spent Rs. 67 lakh in hardware and more to train employees.

The sources say this is only the first part of the process.

Once the networking is done, the proposal is to link all urban banks in the State to offer core banking solutions to account-holders.

This means, for instance, that account holders of the Erode urban bank would be able to operate their account from anywhere in Tamil Nadu. Installation of automatic teller machines (ATMs) is on the cards.

The Department is also focussing on giving a facelift to banks.

In a letter to senior department officers and bank heads, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies has said they shall provide better seating facilities to customers, install flex boards outside banks, improve lighting, repaint walls, repair furniture and give bank premises a modern appearance.

For this, he has asked the officers concerned to allot Rs. 50,000 to be spent at the bank managers’ discretion.

The sources say the aim is to bring the cooperative urban banks on a par with private and public sector banks, in terms of both service and infrastructure.

courtesy : the hindu

Saturday, January 23, 2010

NEWS UPDATE

limits for employees loans enhanced: but beware! your pockets will be emptied

the limits for the loans taken by the employees of primary co-operative societies including urban co-operative urban banks from their respective institutions has been enhanced as per the government order dated 30.12.2009. the overdraft limit has been raised from the present Rs. 50000 to Rs. 100000 and the housing loan limit has been raised from the present Rs. 350000 to Rs. 500000.

BUT, the Government Order cited above states that, the employees have to pay higher inerest rates (equivalent to the interest rates applicable to the ordinary customers) for availing the enhanced loan limits. the employees who avail the earlier lower limits can continue to enjoy the lower interest rates fixed earlier. that is, in essence, the the government order is firmly against the earlier liberal concept towards the employees and it is intended to withdraw the prevailing concessions for the employees.

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pay revision committee to meet on 29th

the next and crucial meeting of the pay revision committee will be held on 29th January 2010 at thiruvananthapuram. the last meeting held on 14th January was concluded without any progress in talks. the management federation has not agreed to the important demands of the unions on stagnation increment, weightage and percentage of merger of DA and percentage of increase. generally it was felt that there will be concensus in the last meeting itself. but the unexpected turnaround of the management federation has broke all the expectations.

we can expect a realistic decision in the next meeting.

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an ideal short term course for the employees of UCBs

Indian Institute of Banking & Finance, a body of banks and financial institutions and professionals in banking and finance industry in India, was established on 30th April, 1928, at the initiative of few eminent bankers, businessmen and industrialists of India. The mission of the Institute is to develop professionally qualified and competent bankers and finance professionals primarily through a process of education, training, examination, consultancy / counseling and continuing professional development programmes. the indian institute of banking and finance, mumbai is conducting Advanced Diploma in Urban Co-operative Banking Examination to build professional competence and enhance decision making skills in urban co-operative banks.
SUBJECTS
(i) Principles & Law of Co-operative Banking
(ii) Co-operative Banking Operations, and
(iii) Technology, Risk Management & Regulation of Co-operative Banks

PATTERN OF EXAMINATION
Question Paper will contain approximately 120 objective type multiple choice questions. The examination will be conducted on-line. There will NOT be a system of negative marking for wrong answers.

ELIGIBILITY
The applicant should be graduate of a recognized university.

For more details, please visit : www.iibf.org.in

Monday, December 28, 2009

WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

OPEN BROWSERS FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY

As of now, as the IT world is reigned by Microsoft, we are learning computing as the slaves of Microsoft. The Windows Operating system of Microsoft is a proprietary software; that is we have to pay for its usage and there are constraints for the number of users for a copy of that OS. as these softwares are a product of knowledge, the spread of knowledge is in chains when it comes to a proprietary software. There are a number of free and open source operating systems like Linux. There are a number of versions for Linux itself. Popular linux distributions like UBUNTU, FEDORA, RED HAT, DEBIAN, OPEN SUSE, MANDRIVA etc. are a treasure of knowledge. There are no restrictions for the usage. We can freely use it, share it, develop it etc. The virus and malware attacks for these operating systems are almost nil, as there are no financial components behind these distros. the viruses and malwares are mainly attacking the windows and related software components. as a windows component, the 'internet explorer' browser is under continuous threat from these virus and malware softwares.

In a study, it was understood that almost 90% UCBs in Kerala state uses internet explorer as the browser and the virus attack is a regular and untamed dilemma of the staff of UCBs here. It is established among the IT experts that the Microsoft's products including Internet Explorer is not safe against virus attacks and hacking. We can use the open browsers like MOZILLA FIREFOX, GOOGLE CHROME, OPERA, APPLE SAFARI etc. instead of Internet Explorer to keep away from virus attacks. there are a number of newly added features like tabbed browsing, private / incognito browsing etc. which make the browsing easier and enjoyable. the anti virus software embedded with the browser is so powerful because of the free and frequent updating. also, the browsers are freely updated over the internet.

these browsers are downloadable freely from the following locations :

mozilla firefox google chrome

apple safari opera

I strongly recommend the 'firefox' and 'Chrome' because of the easy usage. Of course, there may be some initial inertia for the switchover, as we would be used with the IE's ways. But I am dead sure that you will enjoy the new ways of browsing.. safety and speed..

read some valuable tips : mozilla firefox : features

Google chrome : features

tips for safe browsing

securing your web browser

Please note that the Internet Explorer is to be compulsorily used for certain programs and for some applications. Hence, care is to be taken not to remove IE from your system. Similarly, the simultaneous usage of two browsers is to be avoided, as this may cause some mismatches. So select the apt browser of your taste.. and enjoy the freedom..

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

UMBRELLA ORGANISATION FOR UCB's

Courtesy : The Hindu Businessline

RBI panel suggests umbrella organisation to revive urban co-op banks

The UCB sector is keen that the organisation should provide payment and settlement services and liquidity assistance.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 17 Urban co-operative banks (UCBs) are likely to heave a sigh of relief. A Reserve Bank of India working group has recommended that an umbrella organisation be floated to provide, among others, loans and advances, refinance, payment and settlement services, capital support, IT services and funds management to these banks.

Instead of setting up a Rs 2,500-crore revival fund for providing solvency support to weak and sick UCBs (23 per cent of the 1,721 UCBs fall in this category), the group has pitched for setting up State-specific Emergency Fund schemes to provide liquidity support.

The idea of creating a fund has been shelved as contribution from the profits would be resisted by UCBs. Moreover, the Central and State Governments are unlikely to come forward to contribute to the fund.

“The working group is convinced that an umbrella organisation that provides a variety of professional services to UCBs, helps them augment their capital and provides emergency liquidity support would be helpful for the sector (UCB),” according to the report of the working group on umbrella organisation and constitution of revival fund.

To be floated as a non-deposit taking non-banking finance company with a paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore, the organisation would also provide services such as ATM network, investment banking, management consultancy, and capacity building services. The conversion of the umbrella organisation to a banking company could be considered in due course in the light of experience gained.

The UCB sector is keen that the organisation should provide payment and settlement services and liquidity assistance. There are concerns that the new eligibility norms would make Magnetic Ink Cheque Recognition-based clearing, Real Time Gross Settlement, Securities General Ledger/ Constituent SGL accounts out of reach for a large number of banks and lack of avenues for temporary liquidity assistance (even against government securities) in case of need and urgency.

Centralised body

Many small UCBs are looking forward to a centralised organisation for buying, selling and managing government securities on their behalf in view of their lack of skill and expertise in the areas.

As on March-end 2009, there were 1,721 UCBs with an asset size of Rs 1,96,395 crore. If these banks initially contribute Rs 0.10 per every Rs 100 of assets, then Rs 196 crore could be raised by way of capital. However, since shareholding in the organisation would be voluntary for UCBs, their participation, according to the group, is expected to be 50-60 per cent in terms of assets, though it could be much more in terms of actual number.

The paid-up capital could be called up/ subscribed in two or more instalments. To begin with, a one-time fee of Rs 1 lakh a member could also be collected and kept in the reserve fund. The group felt that some kind of fiscal incentives by the Government to UCBs for their contribution would help the organisation mobilise the share capital.

To make the umbrella organisation sustainable, the RBI could reckon deposits kept by the UCBs with the organisation for the purpose of cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio, permit the organisation membership of Payment and Settlement systems; and setting up ATM networks, etc.

Being a non-deposit taking NBFC, it would be in a position to access working capital via borrowings from banks/ financial institutions; term deposits from UCBs; bonds/ debentures; and refinance against loans and advances/ securities.

Monday, October 12, 2009

AKCUBEA annual meeting concluded at Kodungallur

Kodungallur : The annual meeting of the largest union in UCB sector in Kerala, The All Kerala Co-op. Urban Bank Employees Organisation, concluded here at Kodungallur on 11th October 2009. The meeting held at the Kodungallur Town Coop. Bank Hall was inaugurated by Mr.C.Divakaran, Hon. Minister for food and Civil Supplies. Association President Mr. Chandrasekharan Nair presided over the function. Mr. K.P.Rajendran (Hon. Minister), Mr. M.P.Jackson, Mr. Paul Alappat, Mr. Chandramohan, Mr. Joy, Mr. Perunguzhi Sreedharan etc. were present at the occassion.