India

Bank unions gave a strike call against India’s move to dilute its equity in banks and give foreign investors additional voting rights.

Inclusion of Bank of Rajasthan’s 450 branches into the network comprises a huge fraction of additional branches.

The lender is to set up five fully automated branches in Tamil Nadu to address the growing need for electronic banking.

The lender chose organic growth than M&A for expansion as it opens opportunity for sustained growth for those wanting to tap into the Indian market.

Aside from pending licensure in Australia and Canada, the lender eyes to move its international operations headquarters to London.

The move is part of the lender’s drive to its top management in South Asia.

The lender’s SME loan processing centres facilitate loan applications with credit requirement ranging from $55,666 to $5.57mn.

Former Bank of America executive will replace V. Anantharaman, who has been reassigned as the lender’s South Asia co-head for wholesale banking.

A statement by the Nigerian lender said it is in negotiations with potential investors including ICICI.

The lender strives to achieve 20% growth in deposits and 22% in advances via extending global reach.

Liquidity crunch and loan recovery will hamper Nepali financial inastitutions beginning next month. Vibor Development Bank and People's Finance went into serious liquidity crunch. However, this is not the first instance of liquidity crunch in the country. Experts said the liquidity crisis was a result of quick profit motive rather than going for much reliable investments. Radhesh Pant, Chief Executive Officer of Kumari Bank in Nepal said that the situation had arrived mainly because of two reasons -- the political instability and lack of proper monitoring over the financial institutions. "The political instability causes an impasse at the policy making level, which discourages investment. And also, there are too many players in the banking sector right now and a proper monitoring system is lacking," according to Pant. "We have 28 commercial banks, we have 60-65 development banks, more than 70 financial institutions," Pant said. "The government and the political parties should focus on the economy of the country while fixing their priorities for the next 5-10 years on how to develop Nepal. For instance, a focus on hydropower with strong strategy, which is bought in by all the parties so that in future, even when the government's changes, same objectives, and strategies are worked on," Pant said. Likewise, he also said that the the other basic reason behind the crunch was the decelerating growth in the remittances. The bankers and financial institutions have also blamed the government for its failure to promulgate the national budget on time and its lack of spending ability. The full story is available at xinhuanet.

Yet bankers doubt India’s capacity for a large exposure in fundings for mergers and acquisitions which is enjoyed by global banks.

4,987 officers would be recruited for associate banks of the lender.

The lender secured government backing on the capital raising activity following posting of one of the lender’s lowest Q4 profit last month.

The move seeks to strengthen position in rural areas following the management’s dissatisfaction of the lender’s progress in these areas.

Movement of ex-managing director Prakash Subramanian K V and Sandeep Behl to South east Asia is part of first phase of reshuffle wave.