State Bank of India to charge customers Rs 60 per year for SMS alerts

“With effect from quarter ending June 2013,SMS charges of Rs 15 inclusive of service tax per quarter will be recovered,” SBI said in an announcement.

The country’s largest bank,which has about 18.5 crore customers,did not specify whether the charges are for special alerts only or even debit or credit card transaction alerts sent as per regulatory guidelines will also come under this.

Private sector banks ICICI and HDFC are already charging Rs 60 per year,excluding service tax,for sending special SMSes other than withdrawal and deposit alerts to its customers.

At present,service tax rate is 12 per cent and education cess is 3 per cent of the service tax amount.

Kotak Mahindra Bank charges Rs 25 per quarter for SMS alerts and updates. SBI’s fee income during the fourth quarter of 2012-13 declined by 8.13 per cent to Rs 3,873 crore as compared to Rs 4,216 crore in the corresponding quarter.

Last month,Canara Bank announced a levy of about Rs 112 as annual fee on its ATM debit cards from July 1.

UCO Bank to seek capital from government to meet Basel-III norms

Kolkata: Public sector UCO Bank would approach the government for fresh infusion of capital to meet Basel-III norms.

“We will write to the government seeking capital for the bank,” chairman of UCO Bank Arun Kaul said. “We are taking adequate steps for getting Tier-I,Tier-II capital. We have options to go to the market or approach the government,” Kaul told shareholders at the bank’s 10th annual general meeting here. He said that the bank was already having branches in Hong Kong and Singapore. “We are now looking at South East Asia,” Kaul said. Kaul said that the bank had restructured accounts worth Rs 8,500 crore. He said that bank had adopted a strategy to diversify portfolio from large corporates to MSME,retail and agriculture.

Simplify Mutual Fund products to reach out to masses: PwC

Mumbai: Mutual fund products should be simplified to enable selling them to people in rural areas through public sector banks,says a PwC report. “Mutual fund products need to be simplified if they have be sold to the masses through public sector bank channels,” the report said,adding an MF product should provide predictable income to investor like a fixed deposit. “The product needs to mimic a fixed deposit,and provide a predictable income. Also,these products need to be solution-oriented,” the report said. Last week,Sebi chairman UK Sinha had flagged concerns relating to lower penetration of MF products in rural areas along with falling retail investor base. The report also pointed out that there is need for fund houses to increase their distribution strength. It also noted that the industry needs to explore an alternative mode of distribution for expansion and growth. pti