Page 6 - BANKING FINANCE FEBRUARY 2016 ONLINE

BANK UPDATE

BTI Payments to open 1,000 more ATMs by March 2016 Banks insurers to tie up
with India Post for ex-
White label ATM operator BTI Pay- stipulated roll-out schedule thereby panding
ments plans to add another 1,000 playing a key role in the financial inclu-
ATMs to its network in the coming sion agenda, he said. The country's oldest postal service
months, taking the total to provider
4,000. "We will open about According to the roll-out is now
800-1000 White Level commitment, BTI was to being
ATMs (WLA) in the coming complete the installation of wooed by
months by March 2016," 3,000 WLAs by March banks
BTI Payments Private Lim- 2016, Srinivas said.
ited CEO K. Srinivas told. and insurance companies as it gears
WLA is a cash dispensing up for a debut in the payment bank-
BTI rolled out 3,000 'India1' ATMs in machine which are owned and oper- ing business after being pursued by
rural India, three months ahead of RBI ated by non-banking companies and e-commerce firms for logistics and
does not have any label of any bank. other support. The list of those keen
to tie up with India Post includes
India is the largest receiver of global remittances names like SBI, Bajaj Alliance, IDBI,
YES Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank.
The trend in inflow of global remit- Bank has projected a 2.5 per cent hike
tances to India, aided by depreciation further. There are 17 such banking and insur-
of the rupee, has boosted the money ance companies who have shown in-
transfer industry in India, leading to an The increased inflow of money has terest to use the postal network for
expansion of payment loca- raised business volumes of delivering their services such as EMI
tion networks. The in- remittance companies, collection and insurance.
creased remittances have which, in turn, has boosted
heightened the level of the level of competition, Sources told that SBI could be the
competition and reduced leading to improved ser- first bank to join hands with the
the time gap in delivery. vice. Postal Department. "SBI chief and
Kavery Banerjee, Secretary, Depart-
India is now the largest receiver of glo- Kiran Shetty, Western Union's Regional ment of Posts, had a meeting re-
bal remittances, and more than two- Vice-President and Managing Director cently and they discussed to work
thirds of the remittances come from (South Asia), pointed out that the com- hand-in-hand for providing services
North America and the Gulf states. pany had made rapid progress in re- to customers," an official said.
cent years in terms of volumes and
The country received $70.3 billion in expansion of location networks. He According to government sources,
remittances in 2014 and the World expects the trend to continue. the companies want to use the
postal network by partnering with
1,624 FIRs against willful defaulters amounting to Rs the India Post Payment Bank, which
got licence from the RBI recently.
16,601.90 crore
The official said the government is
As many as 1,624 FIRs have been filed with regard to willful defaults owing also working towards banks installing
money to the tune of Rs 16,601.90 crore, official sources said. Willful defaulters ATMs at post offices; the Depart-
owe PSU banks a total of Rs 64,334.59 crore at the end of first half of the cur- ment of Posts has a network of 1.55
rent fiscal. Among the banks, SBI has been one of the slowest in filing FIR by lakh branches across the country and
registering only 13 cases amounting to just Rs 13.10 crore. more than 85 per cent are in rural
areas.
SBI to rise to Rs. 12k cr by Tier-II bonds

State Bank of India (SBI) said it plans to rise up to Rs 12,000 crore by issuing
tier-II bonds on private placement basis. The Committee of Directors' has
authorised the bank to rise up to Rs 12,000 crore by way of "issue of Basel III
compliant Tier-II bonds, at par, through private placement", SBI said in a filing
to the BSE.

6 | 2016 | FEBRUARY | BANKING FINANCE

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