Gaps in process to select PSB top executives: Panel-Times of India 24.11.2014
NEW DELHI: A high-level committee appointed after the arrest of former Syndicate Bank chief in a corruption case has found several gaps in the selection process for top executives at state-run banks. It identified lacunae in the entire process — from fixing the eligibility criteria to short-listing candidates, the interview process and allotment of banks — and asked the government to rectify the system.
The panel — comprising expenditure secretary Ratan Watal, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and education secretary R Bhattacharya — was set up by finance minister Arun Jaitley to review the appointment of bank chiefs and executive directors after a reference from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which arrested the then Syndicate Bank chairman and managing director, S K Jain, on charges of corruption.
Read My Views On Interview
TOI has run a series of stories pointing out irregularities as well as the review that was initiated by the finance ministry. To begin with, the committee is critical of the appointment of Usha Ananthasubramanian's as the CMD of Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
Power of Transfers
Read Corruption In Promotion Processes
It also pointed out that the finance ministry had identified 19 candidates for seven vacancies by expanding the zone of consideration by relaxing the eligibility criteria. But, it did not recommend any changes as the relaxation had been approved by P Chidambaram, who was then finance minister. "Going forward, however, the group suggests a careful review of criteria to determine the zone of consideration for EDs and general managers, a transparent set of guidelines and strict adherence to them," it said in its report.
While being critical of the interviews — which often lasted 15 minutes or less — the committee pointed out that candidates, who had appeared for interviews for CMDs, had received very low marks, when several of them had high scores in their earlier interviews for ED's job.
The marking system revealed that there were at least six persons who had received 100% in their annual performance appraisal (APA) but four of them got low scores — from 17 to 23 (out of 30) — in the interviews. A similar trend was observed in the ED interviews too, where seven candidates scored 68 or 70 marks (out of 70) in the APA, but got less than 10 in the interview. In contrast, two candidates with 60 and 62 marks in APA scored 27 and 28 out of 30 in the interviews.
What also caught the attention of panel was that those who made it to the interview due to the relaxation in the eligibility criteria fared better. While four of the eight from the extended eligibility list were shortlisted for appointment, from the original list only 27% (three out of 11) made the grade.
It then went on to say that the process of allocating banks was "not transparent" and suffered due to delay in vigilance clearance. Recommending that the government to seek vigilance clearance in advance, the panel also suggested that shifting CMDs from one bank to another didn't help as bank chiefs have short tenures.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India-Business/Gaps-in-process-to-select-PSB-top-executives-Panel/articleshow/45253312.cms
Banks to alert before charging for breach of minimum balance-LiveMint
Guidelines will come into effect from 1 April
Have you ever been charged a penalty for not maintaining the minimum balance in your savings bank account? The bank usually does not alert the customer when it charges such a penalty. You get to know about it only after the money has been debited from your account. Soon, however, banks will have to inform the customers about the breach in minimum balance, thanks to a recent notification by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
PENALTY ON NOT MAINTAINING MINIMUM BALANCE
Generally, banks charge a penalty on non-maintenance of minimum average balance (MAB) in your saving account. The MAB amount and the penalty differs across banks, and also depends on the type of bank account you have. For instance, in ICICI Bank Ltd’s savings account, the minimum monthly average balance to be maintained are Rs.10,000 (metro and urban locations), Rs.5,000 (semi-urban locations) and Rs.2,000 (rural locations). In case the amount in the savings account in a metro is between, say, Rs.5,000 and Rs.10,000, the bank will charge a penalty of Rs.250 per month. If it’s lesser than Rs.5,000, it charges Rs.350 per month. Punjab National Bank requires you to keep a minimum quarterly average balance of Rs.1,000 in metros in a savings account. The bank charges Rs.200 per quarter as penalty if MAB is not maintained.
NEW RULES
Banks generally don’t send any alerts or intimation if the amount in your account falls below the MAB level, or when a penalty is being charged. In a recent notification, however, RBI stated that banks will have to notify consumers clearly through SMS, email or letter about the fall in MAB. Banks will soon also have to allow consumers to add money to the account within a month from the date of notice, and charge a penalty only after that.
Further to this, banks will have to follow up in case the minimum balance is not restored within a reasonable period, and recover penal charges only after informing the account holder. The penalty will have to be proportionate to the extent of shortfall.
In the notification, RBI also mentioned that banks should review the penal charges, and levy these as a fixed percentage on the difference between the actual balance and the minimum balance required. It has asked banks to ensure that such penal charges are reasonable and not out of line with the average cost of providing the services.
Banks will also have to ensure that the balance in the savings account does not turn negative due to the penalty.
These guidelines will come into effect from 1 April 2015. As of now, banks have been asked to update customer-related information in their data base
If you are in the habit of visiting your ATM frequently then you should now be watchful as beginning December 1, 2014, more than 5 monthly visits to your bank’s ATM for a financial transaction may cost you over Rs 20 and a non-financial transaction will attract over Rs 8.5 as penalty. Several banks have already announced that they will charge customers for additional transactions.
As per the directive issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) dated August 14 and then on October 10, 2014, with effect from November 1, 2014, the number of free transactions at your ATMs of your own bank has been limited to 5 in a month (as against unlimited free transactions till now). In case of other bank’s ATM, the number of free transactions have been brought down from five to three (in the six metros) while it has been kept at 5 for non-metros.
The six cities that RBI has identified as metros for the same are —Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. “Banks are advised that at least five free transactions (inclusive of financial and non financial transactions) per month should be permitted to the savings bank account customers for use of own bank ATMs at all locations,” said the RBI directive which has put a cap of Rs 20 (plus service tax) as charge for every additional transaction. Several banks including State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank have already announced that they will be levying charges on ATM usage over and above the minimum permitted by the RBI, beginning December 1, 2014.
ICICI Bank has, however, not yet announced the same. The impact If you live in one of the metros and visit your ATM once in two days to withdraw cash then you will exceed your monthly free withdrawal limit (including own and other bank ATM) by 7 times which means that you will have to pay a penalty of over Rs 140 in the month which comes to Rs 1,680 in a year. Ways by which you can reduce your ATM visits There are however some ways by which bank customers seek to bring down their ATM visits and thereby avoid paying the penalty on such transactions. Most monetary transactions and a lot of non-financial transactions such as cheque book requests, credit card payments, checking your account balance or generating a mini statement can be done by logging into the net banking account and customers can avoid visiting ATMs for such purposes.
Some banks including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis bank offer a missed call service for non-cash transactions where the customer can call a dedicated number from their registered mobile number following which an SMS is sent by the bank. Customers can use it for balance enquiries , checking mini-statements, cheque books and making account statement requests. All that a customer needs to do is to store the toll free numbers of his/her bank and call on it. Customers can also go for more debit card transactions rather than cash transactions as it -
See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/as-banks-plan-more-charges-reduce-your-atm-dependence/#sthash.KyEx8OLB.dpuf
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