Strike hurts state-owned banks, cheques for clearance held up: Unions

In the afternoon, over 5,000 bank staffers staged a rally at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan and raised slogans opposing the proposed merger

Latest News: Work at state-owned banks across India was affected on Wednesday after unions struck work to protest against the proposed merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda (BoB).

Work in state-owned banks was paralysed in Mumbai, said union officials. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UBFU), an umbrella organisation of nine unions, claimed “100 per cent participation” by employees and officers of public sector, old generation private sector and some foreign banks in the strike.

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In the afternoon, over 5,000 bank staffers staged a rally at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan and raised slogans opposing the proposed merger. At least 3 million cheques, worth around Rs 23 billion, will not be cleared because of the strike, said the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), which is part of UFBU.

Each public sector bank has its own history, geography and culture in the background. If the government bulldozes the decision of the merger, it will put their customers to great hardships, said UBFU leaders who addressed the rally. Most state lenders had informed customers about the strike. Private banks were unaffected by the strike…

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Thieves dig 25-foot tunnel, rob 30 Bank of Baroda lockers in Maharashtra

Robbers dug a 25-feet tunnel to sneak into the Bank of Baroda's Juinagar Branch in Navi Mumbai and reportedly escaped with Rs 1 crore in cash and valuables

Bank of baroda robbery : Human ingenuity, people say, has no limits. Add greed to it, however, and the results can be quite shocking, as people in a Navi Mumbai neighbourhood found out when a group of robbers executed a robbery straight out of the movies at a bank branch.

Robbers dug a 25-foot tunnel to sneak into the Bank of Baroda's Juinagar Branch in Navi Mumbai and reportedly escaped with Rs 1 crore in cash and valuables from at least 30 safe boxes, police said on Monday.

According to a police official, the Hollywood film-style robbery may have taken place during the weekend holiday but came to light when the branch opened on Monday morning.

Investigators said the tunnel was dug from an adjoining shop outside the bank's store room, which houses private lockers rented out to people for safekeeping of valuable and documents.

However, the robbers could not break open the main safe housing the bank's cash reserves.
The robbery - reminiscent of the British-Hollywood flick The Bank Job - created a sensation and hundreds of locals gathered there to see the unfolding drama.

A police official said it could be the work of expert criminals and a new modus operandi had been revealed, which may need to be factored in by security agencies manning such banks.

"The thieves had rented out the adjoining shop since May 2017. The culprits have dug an underground tunnel of 25 feet long to the locker room of the bank," Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said in a brief statement.

He added that 30 of the bank safe's 225 lockers had been broken into and the robbers escaped with the loot, the value of which is yet to be ascertained.

Nagrale said the police had found some leads and teams of officers and men were working on them.
Though the loss could run into several crores of rupees, the process of assessment was still on. The bank had called all its customers and was verifying other records.

Despite repeated attempts, Bank Of Baroda officials declined to comment on the incident or the losses suffered by the branch.(economy news)

The robbery came to light around 11 am when a customer approached the bank to operate his locker and was escorted to the safe vault by a staffer.

They were shocked to see many lockers broken open and also the tunnel through which the thieves had entered and exited.

Preliminary investigation revealed the robbers had recced the area many times and were familiar with the construction and architecture of the bank as well the locker room.

They had also mapped the entire area and executed the crime with proper planning, keeping the entire neighbourhood in the dark.

Axis Bank cuts savings bank deposits rate to 3.5% on deposits below Rs 50 lakh

Bank to continue to pay 4% interest on deposits of above Rs 50 lakh

economy policy: Private sector lender Axis Bank has reduced interest rate on savings bank accounts by 50 basis points to 3.5 per cent for deposits up to Rs 50 lakh.

However, the bank will continue to pay four per cent interest on deposits of above Rs 50 lakh. The new interest rates will be effective from August 8, Axis Bank said in its filing with the BSE.

Axis Bank’s action follows the decision by State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda to reduce rates on savings deposits. SBI was the first bank to cut the savings deposit rate by 50 basis points to 3.5 per cent for deposits up to Rs 1 crore. Bank of Baroda had cut the rate to 3.5 per cent on deposits of up to Rs 50 lakh.

While Kotak Mahindra Bank retained the existing rates of five per cent on savings deposits up to Rs 1 lakh and 6 per cent on deposits between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1 crore, it reduced the rate on savings deposits of amounts above Rs 1 crore and up to Rs 5 crore from six per cent to 5.5 per cent. The interest rate on deposits of over Rs 5 crores was retained at 5.5 per cent. Karnataka Bank, too, had tweaked the interest rate on savings deposits.

SBI Managing Director Rajnish Kumar had said that it was a choice between increasing MCLR (marginal cost of funds-based lending rate) or reduce the savings bank rates.

A hike in lending rates would have meant an increase in equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for retail, small and medium enterprises, and farm loans. SBI opted to cut savings rate, helping to maintain MCLR at the existing level, he said.