IDBI Bank Ltd. has launched India’s first online retail G-Sec Portal. This Portal provides an opportunity for retail investors to invest in Government securities, as an attractive alternative investment avenue. Government Securities are bonds issued, both by Central and State Government. IDBI Bank organized a function to launch the portal which has been christened “IDBI Samriddhi G-Sec Portal”. This Portal will become operational from January 17, 2012.
The function to launch the Portal was attended by a large gathering of HNIs and senior officials from Co-operative Banks. The launch of the Portal was done in the presence of senior officials of RBI.
RBI during various policy pronouncements has been emphasizing the need for banks to take necessary steps for providing the infrastructure for retail investors to make investments in Government bonds. Shri Melwyn Rego, Executive Director, IDBI Bank Ltd., mentioned that, “IDBI Bank has been a pioneer in introducing a number of new financial products and services. The launch of the IDBI Samriddhi G-Sec Portal is one more such pioneering initiative. Retail investors having access to the internet and a Demat account can now freely buy and sell Government Bonds at the click of a button through IDBI Bank’s website, thereby making the entire transaction transparent and a seamless process. This initiative by IDBI Bank is the first organized effort to channelize retail savings into Government bonds through a dedicated Portal. Retail investors thus get a rewarding opportunity to participate in the India Growth Story.”
Just like Health Insurance portability , mobile numbers portability is there .. you can soon see savings account portability . Which means that you will be able to shift your bank account from one bank to another without loosing your account number . Right now , most of the people do not change their bank account number just because it means change in their account number , not so easy process and updating it on different places , however this will change once the saving account portability comes .
Note that this can take some time because before the portability, all the account numbers will have to be recreated with same digits and same format.
Apollo Munich introduce a first of it’s kind unique restore benefit policy called Optima Restore , that automatically reinstate the basis sum insured in case you exhaust you coverage amount in a policy year at no extra charge. The restored sum insured can be utilized to cover you against any other illness or in case anyone in your family incase of family floater falls ill later.
If you’ve had any claim free year , your basic sum insured will be increased by 50% as a no claim bonus. Read more in Detail
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will launch its first ever tax-free bonds issue of Rs 10,000 crore on December 28.The issue will be live for 3 days and then close on Dec 30th itself. The money raised from it will be used to partly finance various National Highways projects under different government schemes.
The interest rate offered on these bonds would be in range of 8-8.5% and come with two maturity periods of 10 and 15 years. As the interest earned on these bonds are tax free , the effective rate of return be more than 12% for a taxpayer in high tax bracket
Direct Tax code , the new bill which was suppose to replace Income Tax Act might not get implement in 2012 as it was expected to. This is because the parliamentary standing committee on finance has expressed its inability to submit its report on DTC in the ongoing winter session. So mostly the DTC can not be implemented in 2012 , because once the standing committee gives its report, then it will be tables in Parliament and only after the debate it can pass , which will take time .
DTC was redrafted after the initial draft and was suppose to fix a lot of issues in current tax laws, but looks like we will have to wait for one more year. source
NRE Deposits and NRO accounts interest rates for one or more years tenure has been deregulated by RBI . So, banks are free to determine their interest rates on both savings deposits and term deposits of maturity of one year and above under Non-Resident (External) Rupee (NRE) Deposit accounts and savings deposits under Ordinary Non-Resident (NRO) Accounts with immediate effect.
Here is the link for more information
In the latest mid-quarterly monetary policy RBI has not changed any of the key interest rates like CRR , Repo and Reverse Repo rate. At the moment, the repo and reverse repo rate stands at 8.5% and 7.5% . CRR is 6% .
In the past 1 yr, RBI has consistenly increased the interest rates, but it was not changed this time. It was because of the expectations that in coming weeks inflation will moderat.
Few months back govt had increased EPF interest rate to 9.5% which made investors in EPF very happy. But recently they have considered to drop the interest rates of EPF to 8.25% . This will be one of the steepest cut on EPF rates in many decades. Officials would be meeting on Dec 23 to discuss more on this.
If EPF rates really come down to 8.25% , it would really upset a lot of people because this is happening in a condition where inflation is rising and EPF contributions are mandatory. What do you think about this EPF interest rate cut ?
Recently there were changes made in the PPF interest rates , NSC rates and duration and post office deposits . Now the notification date which will be applicable for these changes has come and its 1-12-2011. So the new PPF rate of 8.6%, limit of 1 lac , NSC tenure of 5 yrs , revised interest rate, discontinuance of KVP (Kisan Vikas Patra) and revised interest rates for Post office fixed deposits will be applicable from 1st Dec 2011 .
So in this year itself , investors can put upto 1 lac in PPF which will be a good news for a lot of investors. (Source)
IRDA has recently come up with few regulations and rules for insurance comparision and ratings sites like policybazaar.com , myinsuranceclub.com and apnapaisa.com and similar sites. As per IRDA rules
- Web aggregators shall disclose prominently on the home page that the client/visitor’s particulars could be shared with insurers/insurance brokers.
- Web aggregators shall not carry any advertisements or sponsored content on their websites.
- Product comparisons that are displayed shall be upto date and reflect a true picture of the products.
- Remuneration shall be payable to web aggregators by insurers in compliance with the following provisions:
- A flat fee not exceeding rupees one lakh per year towards each product displayed by the web aggregator in the comparison charts of its web site.
- An amount not exceeding rupees ten towards each lead transmitted by the web aggregator.
This is an extreme step by IRDA and will impact the business of these websites. Read more at moneylife