By January, the bank has already achieved growth rate of 42%

Slump in stock markets and real estate has worked in favour of State Bank of India (SBI), as the largest commercial bank is all set to post 45% growth in deposit base in Gujarat during the current financial year. This is against 24% growth posted by the bank in the previous fiscal and the bank has never seen such a whopping growth in the past. "Few years back, the growth in deposits in Gujarat was around 15%, while in the previous year, it increased to around 24%. But in the current fiscal, we expect it to grow by more than 45%," said chief general manager, SBI, HC Pattnaik.

Licence to be suspended after 3rd offence; violators will pay fine through banks

The state government has decided to put in place throughout the state a new computerised system for maintenance of data on holders of driving licences, and their vehicles.

The system will also be linked to the computer systems of some banks to enable driving licence holders to pay fines and traffic-related taxes through any branch of the participating banks.

The system will also maintain a record of the number of times a vehicle owner has violated traffic rules and the fines he has paid. New traffic rules are on the anvil which, if implemented, will lead to a licence being suspended if its holder commits three infringements of traffic rules.

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank has announced a cut in car loans by 50 basis points with effect from March 1, 2009.

With the latest revision, the car loan would come down to 10.5-11 per cent from the existing 11-11.5 per cent.

It should be noted that earlier this month, the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had cut interest rates on home loans to 8 per cent and on car loans to 10 per cent for a period of one year

The new rates are applicable to all customers availing loans between February 23 and May 31, 2009, a bank official quoted in a statement.

The banking institutions should give relief to borrowers and forward the complete benefit of the repo rates cuts carried out by the central bank (RBI) thus far.

In a gathering with some bank heads today, Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, demanded banks to guarantee that customers are not put to any problem.

Mr. S.K. Goel, Chairman and Managing Director, UCO Bank, who attended the meeting, said that the conference did not talk about more cuts in key interest rates including CRR or SLR, but was called for a general economy appraisal.

At RBI meet, they say deposit rates may be cut in next one month

Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao on Thursday got bankers to admit they had scope to lower their deposit and lending rates on the basis of the monetary policy measures already taken by the central bank. He gave each of the eight bankers he met 10 minutes to speak on their game plan thus far on deposit and lending rates.

The meeting assumed significance on a day when economic growth for October-December quarter came in at a disappointing 5.3%, the lowest quarterly rise since 2003.

In a closed-door meeting with D Subbarao, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, private sector banks promised that they will cut interest rates. Subbarao met with eight bankers, including ICICI Bank managing director and CEO KV Kamath and HSBC's India group general manager and CEO Naina Lal Kidwai.

UCO Bank chairman and managing director SK Goel, who was also attended the meeting, said private banks have promised that they will cut lending rates further. "The discussion was about giving relief to borrowers. To see that they are comfortable and not put to any inconvenience. Whatever is possible will be done on rates," he said.