According to RBI, while banks have the freedom to levy service charges on all matters pertaining to banking transactions, including pre-payment/ foreclosure of loans, banks are required to ensure transparency in displaying information regarding such charges.
RBI said it is expected that freedom given to banks will foster healthy competition amongst banks to keep service charges at reasonable levels, which would ultimately benefit customers. It said, banks generally levy charges for foreclosure of loans as it adversely impacts their asset-liability management.

At the same time, one expects that the RBI will get involved if banks start collaborating to recover standard charges from customers.

In A bid to ensure that fewer policies get lapsed, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda) has made it tougher for agents to shift loyalties . The new agency guidelines ensure that all agents—individuals , corporate as well as banks—continue to sell policies of the same insurance company for at least three years. Historically, lapse ratio has been higher among orphan policies when compared with policies that are serviced by an agent. To ensure that an agent shifting loyalties does not leave behind orphan policies, the insurance regulator has put in a number of preconditions that the agent has to fulfil before he can obtain a no-objection certificate from his principal.
To take care of the policies orphaned by agents, Irda said, life insurers should ensure alternate arrangement, and these measures should go beyond a call centre facility, which is also an essential requirement . Insurance companies have been asked to intimate each policyholder that their agent has quit and there are alternate arrangements being made to service them.

He decided to approach a debt counseling centre for his financial hassles. They showed him the right way to manage his finances. They also mediated between him and his bank. He also obtained written consent from the bank that he would resume repaying his loan once he got a job. In such situations banks do oblige you if you manage to repay most of the money or part of the money if not all as it was a better deal than no money at all.
1. Try to lower your interest rate. Negotiate with your bank. One other way is to convert your credit card debt into a personal loan debt. It will definitely be lesser than the credit card interest rate.
2. Calculate your net worth and see if any of your investments could help you prepay a part of your loans.

More tips are there in the article. The main point is that you should be careful of your finances rather than falling in this trap, and if you do, then get help, speak to the bank and explore other means of financing (except for high-interest loans).

The rating scale starts with AAA (lowest credit risk) and ends at D (default grade, highest credit risk). Going by the normal yardstick, one should always go for the best. So, should all the investors invest only in AAA rated issues? To fathom this paradigm, we have to understand the riskreturn relationship. Risk-return & risk aversion. It is because of the relationship between risk and return — higher the risk, greater has to be the expected return on that investment and vice versa. An investor hoping for higher returns has to embrace the risks that are attached to it.
But how does an investor decide how much risk to be taken? In reality, there is nothing like optimal risk-return trade off. It is often a derivative of various factors like time horizon, liquidity, and some investor specific circumstances. The risk-return trade off is extendable to equities as an asset class also. The relative safety of investing in blue chips may not result in highest returns. In case of IPOs also, the IPO grading is an opinion on the relative fundamentals of the company. The investor decision is guided to a large extent by the valuation and risk tolerance.

So, as they say, the ability of a person to take some risk in their investment is guided by multiple factors. The only thing one should do is to ensure that one has thought through the investment carefully.

To make sure you don’t have to dig deep in such a situation, here’s a guide on the process you can follow to get a duplicate copy of key documents such as NSC, FD, Form 16, Pan Card, mutual fund scheme, insurance policy and home loan papers. “If the papers, however, cannot be traced after reasonable efforts and you suspect they may have been stolen, a report at the nearest police station must be filed immediately,” advises Amitabh Singh, partner — tax & regulatory services at Ernst & Young.
To ensure there is no misuse, instantly inform the respective departments about the loss of original papers/document/policy. The next procedure should be to apply for a duplicate. As a policy, most financial schemes allow for issuance of duplicates on payment of a nominal fee. According to post office regulations, you can get a duplicate certificate issued if loss of the certificate has arisen out of theft, mutilation, defacement. You would be required to send an application to the post office where the NSC was issued.

As recommended, make sure that you keep a duplicate copy beforehand. To get a copy later takes more effort and running around multiple locations, but it is possible and something you should work through.

Imposing a penalty of Rs one lakh, which the bank will pay to Goyal, the forum said, ‘The bank is directed to overhaul accounts of all its loanees and bring the rate of interest at par with those at which the loan (home) is advanced to new customers from time to time, so that all its customers, whether old or new, who have opted for adjustable rate of interest pay the same rate of interest during any particular period.’
Arguing before the forum, Goyal’s counsel stated that the finance company and bank adopted unfair trade practice by increasing rate of interest for old customers at a higher rate, whereas the prevailing rate of interest was much lower, which was depicted through their announcements and advertisements in the newspaper to attract new customers. After hearing the pleas, the forum held that the interest rate of any old loanee would be lowered to bring it at par with the interest rate at which the loan is advanced by the bank to its new customers.

One is not sure whether this practice is still ongoing, but one suspects that banks do continue doing this. Not too many people are aware that this has been ruled unfair by a consumer forum, and that they can challenge this practice. Most people continue to accept that whatever a bank does is acceptable.

If you’re an online shopaholic, make sure you have a personal identification number (PIN)/password for your credit or debit cards. Otherwise, forget about using them for internet shopping from August 1. A recent directive by the Reserve Bank of India makes it mandatory to have an additional authentication passcode verified by Visa or MSC (Mastercard Secure Code). This is in addition to the other information already on the card like name, card number, expiry date and CVV (card verification value) number
So how do you get this new password? Credit/debit card users have to register online with their banks, giving personal and card details. They will then be given a PIN or password to be be used as an additional layer of security at the checkout point before completion of the transaction.

So, if you did not know about this directive, and wonder as to why your card does not seem to work online anymore, now you know the reasons for the same. So, go ahead, and contact your bank for getting the confirmation. As to whether this is fool-proof, only time will tell.

In these recessionary times, airlines globally are operating on half-empty seats. But Air India, which is passing through its worst ever financial crisis, is in fresh trouble for allegedly carrying extra passengers on a fully loaded flight. What adds to the irony is that the excess passengers were discovered in a probe into the aircraft’s door falling apart when it started moving while attached to an aerobridge!
“Of these three, one woman passenger was accommodated in the cockpit and two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off and landing,” said sources. The DGCA can now take criminal action against AI for this violation. The cockpits in modern aircraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot and co-pilot, the third is called a jump seat which is usually vacant. Since the process of issuing boarding passes is completely computerized, the system stops generating passes once a flight is full. In this case, however, the probe has found that boarding passes were allegedly issued manually to enable the extra passengers to clear the different levels of pre-embarkation security checks.

This action by the airline was a gross violation of the air safety norms. In this case, the airline was caught because of another incident, and this fact came out during the investigation.

Art and Commerce Cut off (link to list)

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Admission lists for SC/ST/PH candidates at the following location (link to list page)

Dates for collection of admission slips, and for depositing fees:

Collection of Admission Slip from Arts faculty (North Campus) 25th, 26th, 27th and 29th of June 2009 between 10 AM to 1PM (Excluding Sunday)

Payment of fees in the college : 26th, 27th and 29th of June 2009

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