AIBOC CIRCULAR NO. 42 DATED 03.04.2010

AIBOC issued its circular No. 40 on wage revision negotiations held with IBA today. We are reproducing the same here for our readers.

CIRCULAR NO. 42                         03.04.2010

TO ALL AFFILIATES/MEMBERS:

9^TH BIPARTITE TO CONCLUDE FORMAL SIGNING ON 2^ND WEEK OF APRIL 2010

TO HERALD THE COMMENCEMENT OF SILVER JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS We could not have chosen a better month than April 2010 for inking the historical 9^th bipartite agreement between the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation and the Indian Banks’ Association covering over 2.5 lac officers working in the Banking Industry, as the major Officers’ organization in the country.  Our members may recollect that the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation was founded on 6^th October 1985 at the Foundation Conference held at Delhi.  However, the seeds of the Confederation were almost sown mentally by several leaders of the Bank Officers’ movement during the period January 1985 to May 1985 with a firm determination. It was due to the fact that the priority of the leadership of the then AICOBOO was getting shifted from the crucial negotiations on salary revision, as they were on a foreign trip to attend the international conference during this period. Thus, the determination to form the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation got strengthened during these months in the year 1985.

The details of the discussions between IBA and the Confederation on the Salary Revision are being shared with the members at regular intervals.  The major break through came during the middle of March 2010, due to the persistent efforts on part of the leadership of the Confederation to ensure fair distribution of the wage increase of 17.5% among various components of salary and allowances.   The undersigned along with the President of the Confederation Com.K.S.Shetty, and other senior office-bearers held a number of parleys and thereafter had discussions exclusively with the officials of the IBA and the Chairman of IBA to pave the way for a smooth finalization of the agreement. The dialogue also helped us in ensuring a fair deal to the Officers in all the scales.

The Confederation is solely responsible for ensuring two additional stagnation increments in Scale I to III over and above the existing stagnation increments. The idea of stagnation was not welcomed by the representatives of IBA on the plea that the Officers are supposed to get promoted and not expected to stagnate.  However, the vacancy constrains have made our officers to stagnate in the lower scales and many of our comrades have not been drawing increments for more than a decade. The stagnation increments thus will help us to indirectly take our scales up to the scale IV leaving a small gap of one increment. Thus we could elongate our scales now up to Scale IV due to the judicial distribution of the wage increase load available to us. We have also taken care of fair increase in the scales of Top Executives.

While, the salient features of the entire agreement would be shared with the membership across the country only when the final agreement is signed, we thought it fit, in order to silence some of our detractors from their vitious campaign against the Confederation we are furnishing the arithmetical aspects of the distribution of the load factor. The important ingredients of the working out are as follows:- 

SCALES

JMGS-I - Rs.14, 500/-    TO Rs.31, 500/-@

MMGS-II - Rs.19, 400/-  TO Rs.34, 200/-@

MMGS-III - Rs.25, 700/- TO Rs.35, 100/-@ 

@including two additional stagnation increments 

SMGS-IV - Rs.30, 600/- TO Rs.36, 200/-

SMGS-V - Rs.36, 200/-  TO Rs.40, 400/- 

TEG-VI - Rs.42,000/-  TO Rs.46,800/-

TEG-VII - Rs.46,800/- TO Rs.52,000/-

DEARNESS ALLOWANCE

For every 4 points rise/fall in index, Dearness Allowance at 0.15% per slab.

CITY COMPENSATARY ALLOWANCE

We have freezed the existing CCA and utilized the amount towards improvement in Basic Pay.  Accordingly, CCA rates  will be as under;

Places in Area I -  4% of Basic Pay, Max. Rs.540/- p.m.

Places with population of more than 5 lacs -  3% of Basic Pay,

Max.           Rs.375/- p.m.

HOUSE RENT ALLOWANCE

We have retained the existing rate of  HRA  as under:

           Major A class cities -       8.5%

           Other places in Area I -   7.5%

           Other places -                 6.5%

MEDICAL AID –

For officers other than SBI, the medical aid has been enhanced as; 

Scale I to III –             Rs. 5100/- p.a.

Scale IV & above -      Rs. 6320/- p.a.

STAGNATION INCREMENTS:

It is a fact that majority of senior officers in Scale I to III are stagnated as promotions are linked to vacancies.  Hence, we have ensured to add two additional stagnation increments in these scales. 

Date of Effect : 1^st November 2007.

The other details will be shared later. We expect that final settlement on salary revision; pension for CPF optees  and residual issues will be arrived at during second week of April, 2010.

Comrades, in the given circumstances; when we secured  pension for CPF optees, this is one of the best settlements on salary revision for officers. We are successful in ensuring fair increase in basic pay for all scales/grades and two additional stagnation increments to Scale I to Scale III, which is the unique achievement in the 9th bipartite. The concept of stagnation increment for officers was first time introduced during 1987 and there was no improvement thereafter except adding one more stagnation increment to MMGS III during the period.

Members are requested not to be guided by any type of rumors and adverse comments. We compliment our members for their tolerance, faith and maturity displayed in standing like a rock behind the Confederation.

In the meanwhile, the leadership of the Confederation will be meticulously planning to herald the commencement of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations to coincide with the inking of the 9^th Bipartite Agreement.  The details will be circularised in due course.

With revolutionary greetings,

Sd/-

(G.D. NADAF)

GENERAL SECRETARY

CMD, 2 DIRECTORS OF AHMEDABAD BASED EXPORT HOUSE ARRESTED FOR CHEATING BANKS

CBI has arrested the Chairman and two directors of Vishal Exports Overseas Limited, a listed company in Ahmedabad, for allegedly defrauding Andhra Bank of around 21 crore by submitting fake and forged documents.

The Bank Securities and Fraud Cell of CBI, Mumbai had registered a case against the three on the complaint of Andhra Bank. The company is engaged in the export of agricultural commodities and also claimed to possess the status of Star Export House. The company had availed funds like Packing Credit Facility, Foreign Bill Discounting facility, Letter of Credit facility from a consortium of about 23 banks to the tune of around Rs 500 crores between 2004 and 2006.

CBI claimed that the company allegedly cheated other banks of its funds by adopting fraudulent means like furnishing bogus and forged documents to the bank, by getting Letters of Credit opened in favour of its own associate companies without underlying genuine business transactions.

Besides, the company also diverted the funds sanctioned by banks for its own purpose and failed to utilise for the purpose for which they were sanctioned. CBI had earlier registered three cases against this company and its Directors on the complaint filed by Punjab National Bank, Vijaya Bank and UCO Bank alleging cheating of its funds by the company to the tune of around Rs 190 crores.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cmd-2-directorsa/bad-based-export-house-arrested-for-cheating-banks/390580/

RBI RELAXES RULES FOR ASSET CLASSIFICATION, REDUCES BANKS' BAD LOANS

RBI has eased asset classification of infrastructure and project loan guidelines, which in turn will lower the amount of bad loans in the books of banks. Till now, a bank had to classify a project loan as a ‘sub-standard’ asset if commercial operations did not start within six months of the completion of the project, even if the company regularly serviced its loan. 

Similarly, in case of infrastructure loans, a bank had to classify it as sub-standard if commercial operations did not start within two years of the completion of the project even if it is being repaid.

RBI has increased the grace period for classifying them as standard assets provided the borrower continue to pay.

In case of infrastructure projects, RBI has increased the grace period to a total of four years if the reason for delay in starting production is because of arbitration proceeding or a court case and to three years if the delay is for reasons beyond the control of promoters. For project loans, RBI has extended the grace period to one year from six months from the original date of commencement of commercial operations (DCCO). 

RBI has clarified that this dispensation will not be applicable for commercial real estate, consumer loans, capital market exposure and personal loans. 

The RBI has also increased the provisioning requirement on standard assets if banks choose to extend the grace period in case of project and infrastructure loans. If the grace period is six months from DCCO, the bank will have to provide standard provision of 0.40%, but if it gives a grace period of one year, the standard provision would be 1%. In case of infrastructure loans, if the grace period is two years, standard provision would be 0.40% and beyond two years is 1%.  

Over the last two years, several banks had asked RBI to ease rules for project and infrastructure loans on grounds that they had to classify several accounts as sub-standard because the project could not start commercial production within two years (for infrastructure projects) and six months (for non infrastructure) or two years from the originally agreed date of completion of project because of external reason which were beyond their control.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/finance/RBI-relaxes-rules-for-asset-classification-reduces-banks-bad-loans/articleshow/5753028.cms

16500 CR. TO BE INFUSED INTO 13 BANKS IN 2010-11

According to Mr. Ashok Chawla, Finance Sceretary, the Government has identified 13 PSBs for capital infusion of Rs.16500 crore during the financial year 2010-11 to ensure that PSBs have Tier-I Capital of 8%.

As on December 31, at least four banks had Tier-I capital of less than 8 per cent. UCO Bank’s Tier-I capital was 6.5 per cent, IDBI Bank’s Tier-I capital was 6.6 per cent, Bank of Maharshtra ’s Tier-I capital was below 8 per cent and for Central Bank of India it was 7.14 per cent. 

According to RBI norms, banks have to maintain a minimum capital adequacy ratio of 9 per cent, with Tier I capital of at least 6 per cent.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/rs-16500-cr-to-be-infused-into-13-banks-in-2010-11/389884/

AIBOC CIRCULAR NO. 41 DATED 01-04-2010

AIBOC issued its circular on Inaugural Programme of Silver Jubilee Celebrations. We are reproducing the same here for our readers.

CIRCULAR NO.41                                        01.04.2010 

TO ALL AFFILIATES/MEMBERS: 

SILVER JUBILEE CELEBERATIONS - INAUGURAL PROGRAMME ON 24^TH APRIL, 2010 AT CHENNAI

Please refer to our Circular No: 35 dated 24.03.2010.

We are glad to inform our members that, as decided in the Executive Committee Meeting of the AIBOC held on 17^th February 2010 at Panjim, Goa and sub-committee meeting held on 19.03.2010 at Bangalore, Silver Jubilee celebration of our Confederation will commence from 24^th April 2010, with a curtain raiser inaugural programme at Chennai.

The following are the brief particulars of the programme:

Date of Inaugural Programme              :  24^th April, 2010     

Venue                                             :  Ethiraj College Auditorium

                                                         Ethiraj Salai

                                                        Egmore,Chennai – 600 008.

RSVP :  Shri. D.S.Rishabadas      :  98400  26764/94450 00803
          :  Shri. P.Vijayasenan         :  94440 58950
          :  Shri. M.Devendran         :  94440 42778/94450 00804

Time                                             :          6.00 P.M.

A special working committee meeting of the Confederation will be held on the same date at 10.30 A.M. at Chennai. We also propose to commence Social Welfare activities after the Working Committee Meeting. The details will be shared later.

A grand curtain raiser Silver Jubilee Celebrations, programme will be held at the above venue. Apart from inviting former General Secretaries to the inaugural function as guests of honour, we also propose to invite an eminent Chief Guest to inaugurate the programme. The state unit of AIBOC- Tamil Nadu, met on 25.03.2010 at Chennai and decided to celebrate the event in a befitting manner.

We shall advise the further details later. 

With greetings,

Sd/-

(G.D. NADAF)

GENERAL SECRETARY

AIBOC CIRCULAR NO. 40 DATED 01.04.2010

AIBOC issued its circular on wage revision. We are reproducing the same here for our readers.

CIRCULAR NO.40                           01.04.2010

TO ALL AFFILIATES/MEMBERS:

CONCLUSION OF 9^TH BIPARTITE IS IN SIGHT - NEXT ROUND OF MEETING WITH IBA SLATED FOR 3^RD APRIL, 2010

We are happy to inform all our members that amidst lot of speculation and apprehensions, the final stage for inking the cost sheet as regards the distribution of the wage hike to various components of salary allowances is now ultimately likely to happen on 3^rd April 2010 as agreed between the representatives of the Officers’ Organisations and the IBA, thus putting an end to the uncertainty that prevailed all these days.

Keeping with the rich tradition that the Confederation has been maintaining, we did not share the minute details of the negotiations which basically consisted of apportionment of the load factor on all the major components of salary and thereafter the superannuation cost. The negotiations were tough since the Government and IBA were hard on several issues relating to cost towards superannuation benefits including the incremental cost. The Confederation could exert its pressure to the extent possible to remove the burden on the Officers through continuous dialogue with the representatives of IBA including the Chairman of IBA.

The leadership of the Confederation had taken lot of initiatives and has been in touch with the IBA including the Chairman of IBA to ensure that some of our major demands are met apart from the smooth extension of 2^nd Option on Pension.  Some of the major demands have been accepted in principle by the IBA and enough care has been taken to ensure that the Officers get a fair deal. Therefore these positive developments must be attributed to the maturity and statesmanship exhibited by the leadership of the Confederation and also their persuasive skills in arriving at an amicable settlement in the current negotiations.

In the meeting of UFBU held on 31.03.2010, after detailed discussions, it was decided to finalise the settlement on wage revision and pension option without further delay.  It was also agreed that, the issue of equalising the cost of PF and pension balancing by the IBA to be accepted without any conditions.  As regards reworking of cost of Pension as proposed by us, IBA did not agree to assume the number of employees who would remain in PF.  After detailed discussions, it was decided not to press this issue further.

On effective date of Pension Option, IBA maintained that it would be from the date of settlement and not from 01.04.2008 as demanded by us.  The UFBU would pursue this issue further.

Comrades, there are a number of rumors spread across the country by some of the mischievous elements to create confusion amongst the rank and file.  We only hope that the patience and perseverance by the Confederation will be bringing the best results on the 3^rd April 2010 to all our members and we advise them to keep their cool and not to heed to mischievous propaganda by our detractors and also look for our further communication on 3^rd April 2010 in this regard.

With revolutionary greetings,

Sd/-

(G.D. NADAF)

GENERAL SECRETARY

H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary-General, delivered Central Bank of India’s “Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala Memorial Lecture”

H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary-General, delivered lecture at a scintillating ceremony organized by Central Bank of India at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. We are reproducing here the Press Release issued by the Bank.

PRESS RELEASE 

H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary-General, delivered Central Bank of India’s “Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala Memorial Lecture” In a scintillating ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi Central Bank of India launched its Sir Sorabji Pochkhanwala Memorial Lecture Series in the honor of its founder Sir Sorabji Pochkhanwala – father of Indian Banking System. The Bank has initiated this annual lecture series in its pre-centenary year through out the country. Shri S Sridhar, Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank while welcoming the guests informed how a person from a moderate family took this marathon task of carving a true Swadeshi Bank which is fully owned and managed by Indians. Shri Pochkhanawala was a man of a audacious vision and he conceived this idea of a swadeshi bank with conviction and strive hard to make it live. When he died he was held as a India’s Banking CZAR. While extending his warm welcome to H E Kamalesh Sharma & Dr Krishnamurthy he told that we are fortunate that the first lecture in this annual series is being kicked off by two of India’s tallest sons who have done our country proud. He also spoke at length about the Bank’s alliance with commonwealth and informed that the COSMEC-CBI joint initiative of the Youth Enterprise Financing Facility was announced and it has since been launched in the country. He informed that Central Bank of India & Commonwealth have a common vision viz Partnering with a purpose for a sustainable future.

H E Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary General, who was the chief guest of the function, paid rich tribute to Sir Pochkhanwala for having utmost courage, vision and entrepreneurship in establishing a truly swadeshi Bank. Shri Sharma spoke about the emerging new global order in virtually non-polar world. He spoke at length about the role of Commonwealth and summarized with the quote of Shri Sridath Ramphal that Commonwealth cannot negotiate for world but can help the world to negotiate a new & just global order.

Delivering his presidential address Sri V Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, spoke in detail about the role being played by Central Bank of India in collaboration with Commonwealth. He applauded the role of Central Bank of India and its Chairman Shri S Sridhar in forging this alliance.

Shri Ramnath Pradeep, Executive Director of the Bank gave vote of thanks who conveyed his sincere thanks to the dignitaries on the dais and the audience for their sparing valuable time to grace the function. While paying his tribute to the founder of the Bank he told that plant sown by him has flourished in a gigantic tree – Central Bank of India providing fruits to countless people, industries directly and indirectly, giving active support to the socio-economic growth of the people of India.

The function was attended of cross section of society including Bureaucrats of Government of India, representatives of various Industries, Bankers, representative of print, audio and visual media and ex – staff of the Bank. Bank has also invited the family members of Sir Pochkhanawala on this occasion.

NO. OF VISITORS TO THE BLOG CROSSED 10000 - HAPPIEST MOMENT TO CENTRAL BANK OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION, ANDHRA PRDESH

Dear Readers,

This is the happiest moment of Central Bank Officers’ Association (CBOA), Andhra Pradesh Unit, which is affiliated to All India Central Bank Officers’ Federation (AICBOF) and All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC). The Blog has witnessed more than 10000 visitors in 200 days, the fact of which is quite unbelievable.

We started our Blog on September 8^th 2009 to coincide with the occasion of conducting the Executive Committee Meeting of AICBOF at Hyderabad on 09.09.09 and 10.09.2009.  Sri D.S. Bhadauria, General Secretary, AICBOF inaugurated the Blog in the presence of Sri N.K. Pareek, President, AICBOF and Sri Y.S. Kumar, Treasurer, AICBOF, apart from other stalwarts of AICBOF.

Friends, we started the Blog only with an intention to enable our members and other Centralites in Andhra Pradesh to have up to date information by taking advantage of the technology advancement. Apart from that, we didn’t have any ambitions or expectations on our Blog. But we, the Office Bearers and dedicated activists of CBOA, AP, had only one thing in our mind – the Blog should be maintained with regular updates and the visitors should be enabled to have the authentic first hand information on Banking and other related issues as far as we can lay our hands.

Though we cannot say that we have achieved the desired result to the extent of 100%, the stupendous success of our BLOG and crossing 10000 visitors in around 200 days is giving enough confidence and pride to our Editorial Staff/Office Bearers that our small unit is no smaller than the major trade union representative bodies functioning in the Banking Industry on the Web.

We are proud because of the fact that none of our Office Bearers including the Principal Office Bearers are working at a single place. More importantly, none of our Office Bearers are working at Hyderabad, the Zonal Headquarters. Probably, our Unit may be the only representative body of officers, whose Office Bearers are not working at the Headquarters in the entire Banking Industry. All of our Office Bearers have been working at far away places from Hyderabad and some of them are working in other Regions of the Zone. For this reason itself, we should congratulate the Editorial Staff/Office Bearers of CBOA, AP, who have been making their extraordinary efforts in keeping the Blog running successfully.

Friends, if we take the visitors of 10000 for a Trade Union Blog that too for a Regional Unit of a Bank in around 200 days as a success story, then the success belongs to our dedicated Office Bearers and the activists, who have been making their earnest efforts in providing the updated information and putting their late night efforts in updating the BLOG. Kudos to our Office Bearers who have been continuing their dedicated efforts for the sake of the Organisation, which has been targeted by the management sponsored trade union activities. Even this post is contributed while working as Branch Managers at the time of annual closing.


We also dedicate our success to our members in Andhra Pradesh who have been keeping their faith and belief in the organisation and AICBOF/AIBOC and continuing their loyalty despite of several attacks enforced upon them in the recent past.

The success of our Blog, apart from giving confidence to all of us, has put a responsibility on the shoulders of our Editorial Staff and the Office Bearers to put extra efforts to meet the challenging needs of the visitors. We shall make all-out efforts in running the BLOG successfully and reaching the aspirations of our members and other Centralites.

While inviting our readers to contribute liberally to the content of our BLOG by sending the content to the e-mail ID of gscboaap@rediffmail.com, we assure that we shall be making our sincere and dedicated efforts in keeping the Blog updated.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

(C.A. MALLIKARJUNA RAO)

GENERAL SECRETARY
CBOA-AP

AIBOC CIRCULAR NO. 39 DATED 27.03.2010

AIBOC issued its circular No. 39 on the appointment of Sri K. Anandakumar as Officer - Director on the Board of Indian Overseas Bank. We are reproducing here the same for the viewers.

CIRCULAR NO.39                   27.03.2010


TO ALL AFFILIATES/MEMBERS:
COM. K. ANANDAKUMAR NOMINATED AS OFFICER - DIRECTOR ON THE BOARD OF INDIAN OVERSEAS BANK 

We have pleasure in advising that Com. K.Anandakumar General Secretary, Indian Overseas Bank Officers’ Association our Affiliate, has been nominated as Officer-Director on the Board of Indian Overseas Bank from          26^th March 2010, the date of notification and for a period upto 26.03.2013.  The text of relative notification is furnished overleaf.

We congratulate Com. K.Anandakumar on his induction into the Board of Indian Overseas Bank and wish him all the best in his new assignment.

With greetings,

Sd/-

(G.D. NADAF)

GENERAL SECRETARY

(TO BE PUBLISHED IN PART II SECTION 3 (II) OF THE GAZETTE OF INDIA)

F.No.9/17/2009-B.O.I

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Financial Services 

New Delhi dated the 26^th March, 2010

Chaitra 05,1932 (Saka)

NOTIFICATION

In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (f) of sub-section (3) of Section 9 of the Banking companies (Acquisition & Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980 read with sub-clause (1) & (2) of clause 9 of the Nationalised Banks (Management & Miscellaneous Provisions) Scheme. 1970/1980, the Central government after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India hereby nominates Shri K.Anandakumar, (DOB: 30.08.1955), Sr. Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, as Officer Employee Director on the Board of directors of Indian Overseas Bank for a period of three years from the date of notification or until he ceases to be an officer of the Indian Overseas Bank or until further orders whichever is the earliest.

Sd/-

(Sumita Dawra)

Director

To

The Manager,

Government of India Press

Mayapuri Industrial Area

Ring Road

New Delhi.

CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA CONTRIBUTES TO SANKARA NETHRALAYA CORPUS FUND FOR FREE CATARACT SURGERIES

Central Bank of India has been undertaking many a social cause as a part of its corporate social responsibility. The Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. S. Sridhar, called on Dr. Badrinath, Founder & Chairman Emeritus of the Sankara Nethralaya, a renowned and trusted name in the country for eye care, and handed over a cheque for Rs. 5 lakhs towards Central Bank of India Corpus Fund. The fund would help provide free cataract operations to the poor and the needy every year.