Current Affairs of the Month of March 2012

·         RBI reduced CRR of Scheduled Banks from 5.5% to 4.75% effective from March 10, 2012

·         Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and Bank Rate stand at 9.5%

·         To make the complaint-procedure easier for bank customers, RBI has instructed all banks to display the names, addresses, telephone numbers and fax numbers of their Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), as well as line functioning heads for operations such as credit cards, loans and advances, Retail banking, Personal banking, Rural, Agricultural banking and SME banking on their web-sites.

·         Following are some of the key highlights of the Union Budget 2012-13, presented by Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament on the 16 March, 2012

a)      To protect the financial health of Public Sector Banks and Financial Institutions Rs 15,888 crore proposed to be provided for capitalization.

b)      Savings bank account interest up to Rs 10,000 exempted from tax.

c)       Financial Inclusion : Out of 73,000 identified habitations that were to be covered under “Swabhimaan” campaign by March, 2012, about 70,000 habitations has been covered. Rest likely to be covered by March 31, 2012.

d)      Government to allow use of Kisan credit cards in ATMs.

e)      Government to provide `10,000 crore to NABARD for refinancing Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).

·         The Finance Ministry is looking to merge the 82 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) with their sponsor banks

·         The Finance Ministry has formally notified recapitalization of seven banks for 2011-12 viz. SBI, Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank, PNB, Central Bank of India, UCO Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. These banks will get a total of Rs 12,000 crore (from the Government) to help them maintain a Capital to Risk Asset Ratio (CRAR) of 8%.

·         IMF Chief is Ms. Christine Lagarde

·         Mr. D. Sarkar has been appointed as Chairman & Managing Director of Union Bank of India

·         Mr. D. Narang has been appointed as the Executive Director of United Bank of India.

·         Mr. C. V. R. Rajendran has been appointed as the Executive Director of Bank of Maharashtra


UCO BANK BASE RATE 10.50%

 UCO BANK BPLR 15.00%

UCO Fixed Deposit Rate (1 yr.) 9.10%

Bank Rate	9.00%
Repo Rate 8.00%
Reverse Repo Rate 7.00%
Marginal Standing Facility  9.00%
CRR  4.75%
SLR  24.00%

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“No one can go back and make a brand new start.

Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”