News On Xth Bipartite Settlement

IBA to sign wage revision pact with banks unions on Monday-Times of India 23.05. 2015

VADODARA/MUMBAI: Bank unions will be formally signing the new wage revision agreement with the industry body Indian Banks Association (IBA) on Monday, one of the heads of the unions said on Friday.

The pact, which will benefit 8.5 lakh employees from all the state-run banks, old generation private banks and some large foreign banks, will be signed after years of lengthy negotiations between the UFBU (United Forum of Bank Unions), an umbrella of of nine unions and the IBA.

On February 23, the parties had announced a deal under which employees would be given 15 per cent wage hike on pay-slip components, which will result in an additional salary burden of Rs 4,725 crore per year to the system.
All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatchalam and a member of negotiating team of the UFBU said the pact will be signed on Monday.

A senior IBA executive also confirmed in Mumbai that the agreement will be formally signed on Monday.

Under the February agreement, both the parties had agreed to settle all the pending issues in 90 days, which ended today.

The negotiations are under final stage and will be closed by Monday when the agreement will be signed, Venkatchalam said.

The agreement for which the employees have repeatedly struck work, says state-run bank employees will be able to get an off on alternate Saturdays.

This is a departure from the current practice, where employees work for half-day on Saturdays. To compensate for this, they have agreed to work full day on alternate Saturdays.

Wage revision in state-run banks is done every five years and the last was done in 2007. Venkatachalam said the current revision will be applicable from November 2012.

PSU bank employees will soon get pay hike, arrears for 30 months-Hindu Business Line

Mumbai, May 22:  

Employees of public sector banks, old generation private sector banks and some foreign banks will be a happy lot as they will soon get 15 per cent pay hike, arrears for the last 30 months, and other benefits as part of a deal that the unions and bank managements have reached.

 

Unions, under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions, and bank managements, represented by the Indian Banks’ Association, have worked out a detailed Bipartite Settlement/ Joint Note and the same will be formalised on May 25.

 

The benefits that about 7.50 lakh bank employees stand to get are a special pay, a new hospitalisation scheme backed up by insurance and holiday on every second and fourth Saturday in a month.

 

The back wages (arrears) that bank employees will get for the last 30 months will warm the cockles of their heart. Income tax authorities too will be happy as arrears will be taxable.

S Nagarajan, General Secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Association, said “A special allowance has been introduced for employees… there is a new hospitalisation scheme backed up by insurance.” The wage settlement will benefit 3,04,000 odd officers (as on March 31, 2012) in the banking sector.

 

Officers will get health insurance cover of Rs. 4 lakh and the clerical and sub-staff will get Rs. 3 lakh cover, he added.

 

A corporate buffer will be created by banks to reimburse hospitalisation expenditure exceeding the abovementioned limits.

 

Pointing out that the last wage settlement expired in October 2012, Nagarajan, in a lighter vein, observed that “Five years is the tenure of the wage settlement. We have already exhausted 30 months in coming to a settlement. It’s time now to submit the next charter of demands.”

 

Vishwas Utagi, Vice President, All India Bank Employees Association, said the wage settlement will benefit about 4.50 lakh clerical and sub-staff in the banking sector.

Bank employees will get close a couple of lakh rupees, on an average, as arrears in gross terms, he explained. Since payrolls are computerised, the arrears could be credited to employees’ accounts in a month.

 

Utagi said the issue of upgradation of pension of retirees and 100 per cent neutralisation of dearness allowance will be taken up by the United Forum of Bank Unions separately.

 

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/psu-bank-employees-will-soon-get-pay-hike-arrears-for-30-months/article7236304.ece

State Bank of India has today announced annual financial report and announced reduction in Non Performing Assets and rise in net profit.

I do not trust the correctness and genuineness of NPA data of the bank. Without manipulation and without concealment of bad debts, NPA ratio cannot come down.

If CBI is permitted to carry out investigation of each account of SBI , I am fully confident that NPA ratio will at least double than what have ben announced by SBI.NPA ratio may jump to four or five times also. It is simply false restructuring and selling of bad debts which has resulted in reduction of gross and net NPA of SBI.

All banks manipulate the data of high value loans to inflate profit and to reduce NPA simply to please Ministry of Finance and RBI. Government of India is also least interested to expose the real volume of bad debts and neither interested to recover the money from defaulters. Banking scam is bigger than all scams which exposed in the past. All Bad debts are creation of UPA government and wrong policies of the then rulers. It is pity that even media men are incompetent to reveal the truth .

Fact is that all public sector banks have concealed huge volume of bad assets and real volume of NPA is much more than what thy have announced in annual audited financials. Volume of NPA will continue to rise and a day will come it will explode . Ultimate loss will be borne by tax payers, bank staff and bank customers.

There is continuous erosion in bank's capital and each bank is in need of infusion of capital from government. RBI has today told that share of LIC in Bank's capital is rising year after year and there is threat to LIC also in near future. But the question is who will stop such continuous fall in profit , erosion in capital and rise in bad debts. 

Are  banks and legal machinery of the country  equipped well to recover the money from bank loan defaulters?

Are banks well equipped to ensure healthy lending in coming days and years?

Or banks will continue to write off bad debts and sell bad debts to reduce Gross NPA ratio or make additional voluminous lending to HNI corporate to reduce ratio of Gross NPA. as hitherto done.

SBI Q4 net up 23% at Rs 3,742 cr-Business Standard

Asset quality improves as NPAs fall; profit beats estimates

 

SBI today reported 23 per cent jump in standalone net profit at Rs 3,742.02 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2015 on improvement in its asset quality.

The country's largest bank had made a net profit of Rs 3,040.74 crore during the same quarter a year ago.

Total income of the bank also increased to Rs 48,616.41 crore in the last quarter of FY15, from Rs 42,443.27 crore in the same quarter a year ago, State Bank of India (SBI) said in a filing to the BSE.

The bank has recommended a dividend of 350 per cent or Rs 3.50 per share for the year ended March 2015.

During January-March quarter of 2014-15, the bank's asset quality improved as net non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans were trimmed to 2.12 per cent of net advances as against 2.57 per cent at the end of previous fiscal.

At the same time, gross NPAs also came down to 4.25 per cent of gross advances, from 4.95 per cent at the end of March 2014.

During the quarter, total provisioning and contingencies of the bank were high at Rs 6,592.91 crore from Rs 5,891.12 crore a year ago.

For the entire fiscal ended March 2015, SBI's net profit increased 20 per cent to Rs 13,101.57 crore as compared to Rs 10,891.17 crore for the year ended March 2014.

Total income on a standalone basis increased to Rs 1,74,972.96 crore from Rs 1,54,903.72 crore for the year ended March 2014.

SBI Group's consolidated net profit rose 20 per cent to Rs 16,994.30 crore during the fiscal under review as compared to Rs 14,173.77 crore in the previous fiscal.

RBI Dy Guv warns LIC may feel pain of banking NPA woes: BS-Money ConTrol

LIC has been buying stakes in PSU banks through private placements to help then raise capital as few other investors were willing to put money given asset quality concerns.

 

RBI Deputy Governor SS Mundra has warned of a contagion risk because of the Life Insurance Corporation’s high exposure to public sector banks. In an interview to Business Standard, he said rising bad loans in state-owned banks will erode the value of LIC’s stake in them and hurt the insurer’s ability to serve its policy holders. And because of its large holdings, any distress sale could unsettle the market as a whole.

 

Mundra has been quoted in the interview as saying that LIC on an average holds 9.21 percent across public sector and private sector banks.

 

The RBI had flagged this concern in its financial stability report in December last year as well.

 

LIC has been buying stakes in PSU banks through private placements to help then raise capital as few other investors were willing to put money given asset quality concerns.

 

In March this year, LIC invested Rs 576 crore in  Bank of India  by picking up 2 crore shares through a preferential allotment.

 

According to a Financial Express report , LIC doubled its stakes in four PSU banks — United Bank  , Punjab and Sind Bank,  Central Bank of India  and  Bank of Maharashtra  — in FY15 by investing almost Rs 1500 crore.

 

In January 2014, LIC had invested close to Rs 3000 crore in State Bank of India  ’s Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP). Without LIC’s support, SBI would not have been able to raise the Rs 8000-odd crore it wanted to.

Experts have warned that over-reliance on LIC will make the government complacent in pushing for PSU bank reforms, which are critical to the banks’ ability to raise capital on their own.

 

According to estimates by broking firms and rating agencies, state-owned banks need anywhere between Rs 2-3 lakh crore of capital over the next 4 years for growth.

 

Mundhra’s warning comes barely a week after his boss and RBI Governor Raghruram Rajan cautioned that banks non-performing assets could rise further in the coming days.

 

Similarly dire predictions have been made by some of the rating agencies as well. CRISIL last week said it expected gross NPAs of the banking industry to touch Rs 4 lakh crore this fiscal. Moody’s mentioned the banking sector’s asset quality as a major hurdle to an upgrade in India’s sovereign rating.

 

The fourth quarter earnings of most public sector banks and even some private sector banks like  ICICI reflected the pressure from increased NPAs.

“Not withstanding (the positive surprise on NPA levels) there is considerable pain still left in the economy,” Bank of Baroda  ’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ranjan Dhawan told CNBC-TV18 post the bank’s fourth quarter earnings.

 

“Most of our major clients are still not out of the woods. They have serious liquidity issues,” he said.

 

The Economic Times today has reported that close to Rs 57,000 crore of restructured loans have turned bad at the end of the March quarter, compared to around Rs 30,000 crore in the year-ago period.

 

Restructuring of loans refers to original terms (such as interest rates and repayment schedule) being relaxed when borrowers have difficulty in repaying.

       

40 firms account for 50% of bank bad loans, House panel told -Business Line

 

 

The Centre has told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that 40 major companies in the country account for 50 per cent of the total non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans in various banks.

 

The Centre is also learnt to have told the panel that if the banks follow the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India strictly, the amount of NPAs may rise.

 

The panel members have asked the government to submit the list of defaulters and the amount owed.

On Thursday, the panel started taking oral evidence of various departments on the issue. The representatives of the Finance Ministry (Department of Financial Services), Nabard and SIDBI appeared before it. “The meeting was inconclusive. We will meet these representatives again on the issue,” a member said.

 

Headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily, the panel had selected NPAs as a subject last year.

It is likely to submit a report on the subject during the Monsoon session of Parliament.

The Opposition parties have been urging the Centre to take steps to recover liabilities of big companies and use that amount for welfare.

 

Net neutrality

Meanwhile, the Standing Committee on Information Technology met representatives of BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular Ltd on net neutrality and frequent call drops.

 

“We have got a number of complaints from the consumers. We wanted to hear the views of service providers as well. The process will continue,” a member in the panel said. All the three companies submitted their views on net neutrality.

 

Need for study

An in-depth study is necessary on this new subject of net neutrality, said member of the Committee and CPM leader P Karunakaran, adding that “the main issue is that common people should get the benefits and it should not be at the will and pressure of private companies.”

 

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Telecom Ministry, private companies and other stakeholders will be consulted before taking a final call, he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Sardar Harvinder Singh Stick to His Commitment on Second and Fourth  Saturdays Being Off and Resolving the Issues of Retired Bankers ?-By Rajesh Goyal

 

I am writing this article with a heavy heart and   I do not see any other ray of hope.   AIBOC circular No 2015/20 dated 18th April 2015 (You can download and read the full circular  by CLICKING HERE)  signed by Mr Harvinder Singh, General Secretary, and addressed to all its members  had the following two important paragraphs, which had reassured the bankers that at least there is one Sardar in the UFBU, who is likely to take a stand and protect the interest of the Aam Banker, serving as well as retired, and he will not sell the interests of the Aam Banker.

 

(a) In the above referred circular Mr Singh has clearly written “We also made it very clear in the UFBU meeting that we will NOT SIGN  any agreement till the time the second and fourth Saturday off in the Banking Industry is ensured or a firm commitment is signed by IBA in this regard giving a time line for its implementation”

 

(b)                In the above referred circular Mr Singh has also informed all the AIBOC members that “We also expressed our STRONG views about taking up the issues of retirees like 100% DA neutralisation for retirees prior to 01.11.2001, updation of pension, revision in family pension and extension of another option of pension to resignees and compulsorily retired who have been excluded from the option of pension despite the clear understanding in the last settlement.   We also emphasized that group hospitalization insurance policy for retirees should also be demanded from IBA.”

 

Frankly speaking, overall I have  a great regard for Sikhs as my childhood had been spent in Punjab, and still some of my relatives are in Punjab.  I have seen how Sardars keep their promises.   Once they have committed about an issue,  majority of them are ready to put all their stake on those words.    All history books proudly point out the Sikh community as protector of weaker sections.

 

Thus, when as late as April 2015, I read the above words, I felt assured that the above issues will certainly be resolved before the 10th BPS is signed as Mr Singh will not sign the BPS till the above issues are resolved.   However, the latest reports indicate that even Mr Harvinder Singh is meekly submitting to the pressures of IBA and some of the workmen unions, who are hell bent upon to cheat Aam Banker. The present status of the talks indicate the following:-

 

(a) 10th BPS will be signed on 25th May, 2015 (Monday) by all 9 unions including AIBOC;

 

(b) The reports indicate that IBA is not going to give any firm commitment / (date from which these will be made applicable) for second and fourth Saturday being declared as holidays.  IBA at the most is likely to  agree that it will pursue with the Government to agree with their recommendations.   Recommendations may be accepted or denied in future.   IBA is not likely to give any date from which these two Saturdays will be off.  

 

(c)  10th BPS to be signed on 25th May 2015, in all probabilities will not address the issues of retired bankers, which Mr Singh had elaborated in his letter dated 18t April, 2015.   All retired bankers are likely to be dumped to fend for themselves and seek refuse of the Courts. 

 

Through this article, I would like to remind Mr Harvinder Singh to come clean as to why he is not sticking on his words.  Was the letter written merely a month back has been forgotten by him or was it a ploy to cheat Aam Banker?    What has transpired during this one month.   Why he is afraid of speaking the truth? Who is pressuring him to sign the 10th BPS without resolving the above two issues.   I will request him to behave like a true Sikh and ensure that the commitment he has made is adhered as he is from a majority officer’s union and no agreement for officers can be implemented without his signatures. 

 

Any betrayal at this stage will ruin the prospects of AIBOC as IBA can always go back on the issue of two Saturdays being off.   The dumping of retirees will also bring a set back to AIBOC as majority of the seniors bankers have been loyal members of AIBOC through out their career.

 

Bank officers across India will be watching whether AIBOC stick to your words and commitment given in your circular dated 18th April, 2015, or else they will never pardon you.   You have merely 48 hours to ponder on this issue and make up your mind.   If the BPS is signed without addressing the above two issues, nobody will believe your lame excuses afterwards.