I've been shamelessly scalping the AUDJPY this week (via Oanda). It may be hard to fathom, at least when you see the numbers, but I'm not entirely happy with my results.Jun 28: 00.28% NAV+Jun 29: 06.65% NAV+Jun 30: 11.66% NAV+So far this week, if I can hang onto it, I'm up over 19% on my trading account.Now, you may be wondering why I'm not satisfied with my trading. Basically, I've made too many mistakes. From time to time my discipline is lacking and I jump into a position at what is realistically an unwise entry point.This keeps me from capitalizing on later opportunities until I've extracted myself from the position foolishly entered. It also subjects me to a lot more stress while I wait out moves on a larger timeframe.Anyhow, I've decided to quit fooling around, scalp myself a decent stake, and get serious about trading. Now, if I can just work out my discipline issues I'll be set.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Recent Forex Efforts
Since the recent yen cross meltdown started I've been trying to keep from getting caught on the wrong side of any massive downward moves.As I generally trade only the AUDJPY, mostly on the long side, things have been pretty quiet!However, we are now facing some resistance at 74.50 on the 1hr -- which should be illustrative. We have done what might be a triple bounce off of support in the vicinity of 70.90 or so too. I'm thinking we may have another downturn to confirm support but we could certainly get right back to business without it.In any case, as the market is starting to act rational, I'm just about ready to start trading according to my own particular
Inspiring Inspiron from Dell
I purchased the Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop back in January for my daughter's birthday. I had a limited budget but wanted to get her something with decent enough spec for playing computer games should she wish to do this, and a large hard drive as she is a big fan of making videos on her digital camera and downloading music - two things which can eat up hard drive space.
I did a fair bit of research before purchasing and decided I wanted to get the best spec I possibly could for my money and the Inspiron ticked all the boxes. I paid £399 in January 2009 in Currys for the laptop which was the absolute limit on my budget.
The Dell I purchased has a dark blue coloured lid, however the rest of it is a shiny piano black which looks lovely. I would have preferred metal for the mousepad area - it feels sturdier and doesn't seem to attract the dust the way the piano black plastic does - however that's a small quibble. The screen is widescreen and measures 15.6 inches and overall it's pretty lightweight and easy to carry about if you wish to do so.
So - what came in the box?
As well as the laptop there was an instruction manual, mains lead, Dell restoration CD-ROMs and a CD-ROM for Works 9.
The laptop had Windows Vista Premium pre-installed - and I worried that this might be a challenge for me as it was my introduction to Vista - however setting the machine up was a piece of cake.
I merely switched it on and dealt with a few prompts as Vista set up and then the computer was up and running. It has wifi installed and this picked up my wireless connection without any problems - and once I entered the security details for my network we were home and dry and online in no time!
When I was researching laptops I learned that you really need a minimum of 2GB RAM to run Vista properly, so this was another factor to consider when deciding the spec I needed for her laptop.
The laptop had a trial version of MacAfee installed but I decided to ignore this and installed AVG instead as my daughter is more familiar with it. I also decided to install the Works program that came with the laptop rather than Office as she really only needs a word processing program at the moment. I was concerned she may find it hard to use at first but we had no such worries.
- it loads really quickly and smoothly. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 Ghz and there is 3GB RAM. This combination makes the Inspiron easily the fastest computer in the house - making me What I really noticed about this little beauty was the speed green with envy!
So onto the litmus test - did my daughter like it? Well yes - she loved it! She was really pleased to have this compact little laptop in her bedroom instead of the old desktop computer she had had in the past. She loved how she didn't need a wireless adaptor, the speed, and everything about it! The laptop has a large hard drive of 250 GB but this is half full already - just over 3 months since she got it, so I can foresee me having to get an external hard drive for her in the future.
I had worried about her learning how to use Vista, but like all 12 year olds, she picked it up far quicker than I did, so my fears were unfounded.
There are three USB ports, which so far I have found sufficient. The laptop does have speakers but they are a bit on the tinny side and given my daughter listens to a lot of music on her computer, I got her some USB powered speakers which offer fantastic sound quality.
The laptop also has an integral SD card reader which is invaluable for my daughter as she can easily upload photos and videos from her camera and also copy music onto the SD card she uses in her new Nintendo DSi.
There is a CD/DVD RW drive which works a treat - my daughter thoroughly enjoys making music CDs up using it and has also burned the occasional DVD featuring some of her many video clips. She can also watch DVDs on the laptop but hasn't used the laptop this way - she prefers to watch her DVDs on TV. It also came with Windows Media Center already installed which was an extra bonus as my daughter was already familiar with this from her old desktop computer and was delighted to still be able to use it for her videos, photos and music.
The Inspiron I purchased does not have a built-in webcam but this feature is available on some models.
The one thing we haven't tested is the battery life - Dell claim it's 2 hours however. As my daughter hasn't removed it from her bedroom since she got it I cannot tell you for sure. As she just recently broke the screen on my Samsung laptop, resulting in a large repair bill, she is probably too scared to move this one!
I am really pleased with the Dell Inspiron 1545 and think it's a really good buy for children or students as it's easy to use, fast to load and has a large hard drive but is available at a good price for the spec offered.
I do advise getting some half decent speakers to use with it however and cleaning it regularly - the piano black doesn't half attract the dust and show up fingerprints.
Overall this is a good machine for the money and it can be found in various outlets right now, including Currys, Tesco and Dell online.
**Previously published on dooyoo by me under the same user name
I did a fair bit of research before purchasing and decided I wanted to get the best spec I possibly could for my money and the Inspiron ticked all the boxes. I paid £399 in January 2009 in Currys for the laptop which was the absolute limit on my budget.
The Dell I purchased has a dark blue coloured lid, however the rest of it is a shiny piano black which looks lovely. I would have preferred metal for the mousepad area - it feels sturdier and doesn't seem to attract the dust the way the piano black plastic does - however that's a small quibble. The screen is widescreen and measures 15.6 inches and overall it's pretty lightweight and easy to carry about if you wish to do so.
So - what came in the box?
As well as the laptop there was an instruction manual, mains lead, Dell restoration CD-ROMs and a CD-ROM for Works 9.
The laptop had Windows Vista Premium pre-installed - and I worried that this might be a challenge for me as it was my introduction to Vista - however setting the machine up was a piece of cake.
I merely switched it on and dealt with a few prompts as Vista set up and then the computer was up and running. It has wifi installed and this picked up my wireless connection without any problems - and once I entered the security details for my network we were home and dry and online in no time!
When I was researching laptops I learned that you really need a minimum of 2GB RAM to run Vista properly, so this was another factor to consider when deciding the spec I needed for her laptop.
The laptop had a trial version of MacAfee installed but I decided to ignore this and installed AVG instead as my daughter is more familiar with it. I also decided to install the Works program that came with the laptop rather than Office as she really only needs a word processing program at the moment. I was concerned she may find it hard to use at first but we had no such worries.
- it loads really quickly and smoothly. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 Ghz and there is 3GB RAM. This combination makes the Inspiron easily the fastest computer in the house - making me What I really noticed about this little beauty was the speed green with envy!
So onto the litmus test - did my daughter like it? Well yes - she loved it! She was really pleased to have this compact little laptop in her bedroom instead of the old desktop computer she had had in the past. She loved how she didn't need a wireless adaptor, the speed, and everything about it! The laptop has a large hard drive of 250 GB but this is half full already - just over 3 months since she got it, so I can foresee me having to get an external hard drive for her in the future.
I had worried about her learning how to use Vista, but like all 12 year olds, she picked it up far quicker than I did, so my fears were unfounded.
There are three USB ports, which so far I have found sufficient. The laptop does have speakers but they are a bit on the tinny side and given my daughter listens to a lot of music on her computer, I got her some USB powered speakers which offer fantastic sound quality.
The laptop also has an integral SD card reader which is invaluable for my daughter as she can easily upload photos and videos from her camera and also copy music onto the SD card she uses in her new Nintendo DSi.
There is a CD/DVD RW drive which works a treat - my daughter thoroughly enjoys making music CDs up using it and has also burned the occasional DVD featuring some of her many video clips. She can also watch DVDs on the laptop but hasn't used the laptop this way - she prefers to watch her DVDs on TV. It also came with Windows Media Center already installed which was an extra bonus as my daughter was already familiar with this from her old desktop computer and was delighted to still be able to use it for her videos, photos and music.
The Inspiron I purchased does not have a built-in webcam but this feature is available on some models.
The one thing we haven't tested is the battery life - Dell claim it's 2 hours however. As my daughter hasn't removed it from her bedroom since she got it I cannot tell you for sure. As she just recently broke the screen on my Samsung laptop, resulting in a large repair bill, she is probably too scared to move this one!
I am really pleased with the Dell Inspiron 1545 and think it's a really good buy for children or students as it's easy to use, fast to load and has a large hard drive but is available at a good price for the spec offered.
I do advise getting some half decent speakers to use with it however and cleaning it regularly - the piano black doesn't half attract the dust and show up fingerprints.
Overall this is a good machine for the money and it can be found in various outlets right now, including Currys, Tesco and Dell online.
**Previously published on dooyoo by me under the same user name
For USA members who seeks to get Mortgage or refinance
Banks are there to make money and I would like educate you as how the Mortage market works. first of all Banks compound your interest rate daily .. that's bad..for example if you take out a loan or a Mortage 6% for 30 years, $300,000 you end up paying over $700,000 . What is the solution ? you can double payments that will reduce your 30 years to about 24 years. You can ask your Banker to have a simple interest loand which I will doubt it if they will give it to you.Also for member who are 60 years and older and they have equity on their house over $65,000 you can have a reverse Mortgage(refinance to this concept).What is a reverse Mortgage, simply you stop paying your mortgage bill until all your equity will become zero, nada, nothing left. At that time either you die or if you sell your house the Banker will get most of the preoceeds.With the new era and economic collapse, they Banks right now will give a 30 years mortgage 4%. If you can get that you will never be able to beat this rate any where and time . Good luck.
HSBC Mortgages
My partner has banked with HSBC since his student days and has had his fair share of run-ins with them (like over-extending the overdraft and maxing out the credit card etc!) but has mellowed out somewhat in the time we have been together. Following a period of what I fondly refer to as 'credit hell' we having been working our butts off ever since to try and improve our credit rating to get back to a clean slate. Circumstances came up (at not such a great time, which is normal)and we found ourselves in need of getting or having 12 months to find a lender who would offer us a mortgage. It seemed that every avenue we turned to ended in a closed door and so we went down to HSBC with not too many hopes. The mortgage advisor was fantastic. He told it to us straight, told us the things we needed to do and ultimately, he gave us a goal to work towards. We came out not feeling like we had been laughed, which, after a fair few declines, is no small feat, and began working towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Well, the year is almost up and boy, have we worked hard. We went back to our friendly mortgage advisor to check that we were on track and he congratulated us on our efforts, which made us feel very pleased with ourselves. Like he said, the only way for us to truly improve our credit is to get a mortgage and in order to do that, someone has to take a gamble on us so that we can prove ourselves... HSBC are taking that gamble and I believe that it would take a very big something to stop us from banking with them from now on. They have been the friendly face that you so rarely get from Banks and Building Societies these days and once we're on the ladder, we won't forget all the hard work we had to put in to get there.
Re-mortgaging with the Royal Bank of Scotland
I've been a home-owner now for about eleven years: bought my first house as the market hit rock bottom and and am still there. Naive as I was then about financial matters, I took advice from a professional and ended up with an endowment mortgage. I expect you can guess what happened next. Actually it wasn't that bad: I still had fifteen years to run on my mortgage and am young enough to get another 25-year mortgage. So that's what I decided to do.
I have banked with Royal Bank of Scotland ever since they took over Williams & Glynn's Bank nearly 20 years ago and while I've had other bank accounts as well, both personal and treasurers' accounts for some clubs I've been involved in, as well as building society accounts, RBS have always won hands down when it comes to customer service and helpfulness. Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, you can phone your branch up and speak to a real person instead of phoning a call centre and going through endless menus in order to talk to someone who can't or won't help you. So when it came time to re-mortgage, I looked at the available options with the intention to go with RBS unless something spectacularly better came up. It didn't - in fact the current account mortgage I decided on had one of the best rates I could find and in addition, the Bank paid all the legal fees and the valuation fee.
The actual process was simple. I filled out the application form and sent it off with the necessary copies of my payslip etc. The bank made an appointment to send their surveyor round and my partner stayed home that day. The bank's solicitors did all the legal work: they are based up north but there is no reason whatsover, with a routine transaction, why I should have needed to see them in person, and I didn't. I did speak to them a couple of times and they were friendly, helpful and phoned me back when they said they would. I had to do very little myself. The current account mortgage works like a huge overdraft secured on my house. I have my salary paid into it and all my direct debits etc. come out of it. The rate varies depending on how much you owe in relation to the value of your property – for me, fortunately, it’s in the lowest bracket. I am saving loads of money each month and actually paying the mortgage off, not merely paying the interest. I can use PC banking which was not available with the building society I had my previous mortgage with. There is no redemption penalty if I win the lottery and decide to pay the mortgage off. I could go on but you'd get bored.
The whole thing, from me deciding to re-mortgage to the money being in my new current account, took around six weeks. Whenever something cropped up, as things do, I simply rang my local branch (or they rang me) and talked to one of three ladies whose names I knew and who, despite being busy, took as much time as was necessary to sort out whatever needed sorting in the friendliest manner imaginable. There was one snag: the mortgage insurance. This is supposed to be free for the first six months and I expected the premium to start being taken out of my account at the beginning of this year, but this never happened. It seems that somewhere along the line, the application had gone astray: I've never established whether it was me, the bank or the insurance company who lost it. This is a minor problem - it had the potential to be major if anything had happened but I was lucky.
The Royal Bank of Scotland are only human, and do make mistakes from time to time. Little ones, in my experience, and not very often. They use their vast electronic machine to help, not to hide behind. I wish all banks were this nice!
I have banked with Royal Bank of Scotland ever since they took over Williams & Glynn's Bank nearly 20 years ago and while I've had other bank accounts as well, both personal and treasurers' accounts for some clubs I've been involved in, as well as building society accounts, RBS have always won hands down when it comes to customer service and helpfulness. Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, you can phone your branch up and speak to a real person instead of phoning a call centre and going through endless menus in order to talk to someone who can't or won't help you. So when it came time to re-mortgage, I looked at the available options with the intention to go with RBS unless something spectacularly better came up. It didn't - in fact the current account mortgage I decided on had one of the best rates I could find and in addition, the Bank paid all the legal fees and the valuation fee.
The actual process was simple. I filled out the application form and sent it off with the necessary copies of my payslip etc. The bank made an appointment to send their surveyor round and my partner stayed home that day. The bank's solicitors did all the legal work: they are based up north but there is no reason whatsover, with a routine transaction, why I should have needed to see them in person, and I didn't. I did speak to them a couple of times and they were friendly, helpful and phoned me back when they said they would. I had to do very little myself. The current account mortgage works like a huge overdraft secured on my house. I have my salary paid into it and all my direct debits etc. come out of it. The rate varies depending on how much you owe in relation to the value of your property – for me, fortunately, it’s in the lowest bracket. I am saving loads of money each month and actually paying the mortgage off, not merely paying the interest. I can use PC banking which was not available with the building society I had my previous mortgage with. There is no redemption penalty if I win the lottery and decide to pay the mortgage off. I could go on but you'd get bored.
The whole thing, from me deciding to re-mortgage to the money being in my new current account, took around six weeks. Whenever something cropped up, as things do, I simply rang my local branch (or they rang me) and talked to one of three ladies whose names I knew and who, despite being busy, took as much time as was necessary to sort out whatever needed sorting in the friendliest manner imaginable. There was one snag: the mortgage insurance. This is supposed to be free for the first six months and I expected the premium to start being taken out of my account at the beginning of this year, but this never happened. It seems that somewhere along the line, the application had gone astray: I've never established whether it was me, the bank or the insurance company who lost it. This is a minor problem - it had the potential to be major if anything had happened but I was lucky.
The Royal Bank of Scotland are only human, and do make mistakes from time to time. Little ones, in my experience, and not very often. They use their vast electronic machine to help, not to hide behind. I wish all banks were this nice!
How to Become a Forex Broker
It is a fact that you can make money with currency trading on Forex. Indeed, Forex investing is one of the most potentially rewarding types of investments available. Since individual traders and companies have equal chance to expand in Forex trading, we all have the option to becoming a forex trading broker in order to generate more revenue.
In order to help with your trading strategy and transactions, it is recommended that you must find a forex broker if you are new to the FOREX. The forex broker acts as a liaison of the client to the forex market, which provides technical analysis and research of the market situation and guides the client on the methods of trade as well. All of the information he provides is believed to increase the client's profit.
Before I will discuss on how to become a forex broker, here are some reasons why should you become one. As a forex trading broker you provide your customers access to the freedom that comes from actively trading their own money online on secure forex trading platforms. Since you offer your clients some money making opportunities and some investments, you are then greatly improving the scope and reputation of your own business leading to greater client retention levels. Aside from the fact that you are paid a commission you can also take advantage of the explosive growth in the demand for alternative investments by offering your high-net worth clients a managed forex account.
Becoming a forex broker is simple. A currency trading broker in the Forex trading market is like being a realtor in the property market. Here are steps to becoming one. Becoming Licensed and Registered. Sign on to a licensed business or seek appropriate securities license and fill out a registration form with the SEC in order to be a full service broker. Take note that licensing is different depending on which state you live in. If you move from state to state, license is not always acknowledged. You’re ready to start trading once registered.
However, if you want to become a business broker only and not a full service forex broker, you may work at a brokerage house. You may either go to school or try to learn forex trading by yourself in order to get license. Remember, knowledge is power for the successful broker! A successful forex broker is aware of what’s happening in the world. Forex brokers research heavily on all political and economic news from the countries for which they hold currency.
Forex brokers are much like any other broker that act as the middleman for the individual and the market itself. They key to a successful forex broker is to get licensed and educated about how the market works. With this article you now have information on how to become a forex broker. Get licensed and registered and start forex trading. Soon you will just be sitting up in your multi-million
In order to help with your trading strategy and transactions, it is recommended that you must find a forex broker if you are new to the FOREX. The forex broker acts as a liaison of the client to the forex market, which provides technical analysis and research of the market situation and guides the client on the methods of trade as well. All of the information he provides is believed to increase the client's profit.
Before I will discuss on how to become a forex broker, here are some reasons why should you become one. As a forex trading broker you provide your customers access to the freedom that comes from actively trading their own money online on secure forex trading platforms. Since you offer your clients some money making opportunities and some investments, you are then greatly improving the scope and reputation of your own business leading to greater client retention levels. Aside from the fact that you are paid a commission you can also take advantage of the explosive growth in the demand for alternative investments by offering your high-net worth clients a managed forex account.
Becoming a forex broker is simple. A currency trading broker in the Forex trading market is like being a realtor in the property market. Here are steps to becoming one. Becoming Licensed and Registered. Sign on to a licensed business or seek appropriate securities license and fill out a registration form with the SEC in order to be a full service broker. Take note that licensing is different depending on which state you live in. If you move from state to state, license is not always acknowledged. You’re ready to start trading once registered.
However, if you want to become a business broker only and not a full service forex broker, you may work at a brokerage house. You may either go to school or try to learn forex trading by yourself in order to get license. Remember, knowledge is power for the successful broker! A successful forex broker is aware of what’s happening in the world. Forex brokers research heavily on all political and economic news from the countries for which they hold currency.
Forex brokers are much like any other broker that act as the middleman for the individual and the market itself. They key to a successful forex broker is to get licensed and educated about how the market works. With this article you now have information on how to become a forex broker. Get licensed and registered and start forex trading. Soon you will just be sitting up in your multi-million
Knowledge in Forex Trading
I read all the time about how important it is to learn lots of information to trade forex and how you continually need to learn, but this is NOT true. Succesful Forex trading is actually very simple and the knowledge is easy to acquire, yet 90% of traders lose - so why is this ?Because knowledge alone is not enough, furthermore you need to learn the right knowledge and most forex traders don't.There are plenty of very smart people who lose and plenty of small potato investors who make a lot. The fact you have a lot of knowledge or are clever does not ensure success and in most cases ensures you lose.Let's look at this in more detail.The right knowledge Is not hard to acquire and starts from learning yourself and not trying to get a short cut to success by buying it - if you think you can buy success you are going to lose.Trading means getting knowledge that works and you can have confidence in.Your aim is to make money, not be clever and you can build a simple system from free resources on the net.Simple systems beat complicated systems as they are easier to understand, easier to apply and make more money as they are more robust.Fact is most of the top traders in the world use simple systems.We have been traders for over 22 years and our system is simple:Trend lines, support and resistance to spot trends and 3 confirming indicators and that's it and it works.The right knowledge is easy to acquire but the trick is you MUST understand it, to have confidence and this gives you the trait that most traders lack. DisciplineIf you try and follow someone else you won't have confidence and you won't be able to follow a system with discipline. Unless your knowledge is acquired by you and you have confidence, you won't be able to follow your trading system through losing periods. You will simply throw in the towelDiscipline sounds easy to acquire but it isn't - it's extremely hard to hold your emotions in check.How do I get the RIGHT KnowledgeForget all the e-books, courses and other forex education sold on the net.Go to Amazon and get some books by top traders, who have walked the walk rather than simply talk the talk.Most sold info on the net is not worth the money and you can get far better knowledge cheaper at your local bookstore.Good books to start with are Jack Schwager - Market Wizards and New Market Wizards - the interviews here are all with legendary traders and is a great inspiring read.Then get some books on trader psychology.I am a big fan of Jake Bernstein who really shows how important and elusive getting the right trading psychology is and really hits it home.Another favourite of mine is Trader Vic by Victor Sperandeo, a fantastic book covering all you need to know from money management to system building.Done that?Then go on the net and build a simple system based around technical analysis, a breakout methodology find a few indicators you like to confirm trend momentum and you're all set to go. Sounds simple?Building the system is the easy part - getting the right mindset is the hard part - good luck.
Online Forex Broker Profile
MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is one of the world leading online currency trading broker offering low pips and commission-free online forex trading. Founded by Wall Street veterans, MoneyForex's vision is to service individual and corporate investors such as money managers, banks, and financial institutions in easing the complexity in dealing with forex trading. Our dealing software which specialized in forex dealing is rated second to none for it user friendly environment. Lightning speed and efficient execution is one of its many benefits.MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is incorporated in British Virgin Island (Registration Number 629302) under the provisions of the International Business Companies Act, 1984. MoneyForex is authorized to offer futures, securities, and foreign exchange as a forex broker and primary market maker.MoneyForex is founded by a group of Wall Street Veterans who has more than 30 years experience in the financial market. Other than the financial industry, the group operates various businesses including real estate development, media communication, advertising, internet technology and software application and development.In this complex forex market, a user friendly platform is a must in order to make fast and efficient trading decision and execution. Our trading platform is rated the most user friendly by professional traders. MoneyForex's clients consist of financial institutions, money managers as well as individual investors.We take pride in our professional staff that is thoroughly trained to look after the best interests of our clients. Our professional staff is available twenty-four hours a day (Monday to Friday) to answer your inquiry. Try out our service by open a free demo forex account.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Can you explain the strategy of business growth and expansion plans of your bank? What are the targets for 2009-1 O?
Notwithstanding the global economic slowdown, SBB) has maintained a healthy growth in business and profitability in 2008-09 with net profit growth of 28.1%. For the year 200910, the bank is targeting a business growth of Rs 18,600 crore, as against the growth of Rs 9,885 crore in 2008-09. For the purpose, special emphasis is being laid on the retail segment, particularly agriculture, housing, education and SMEs. Branch expansion shaH also be pursued Vigorously keeping in view the potential at select centers.
How does your bank compete with other banks, especiallv cooperative banks, in the statl?
AU branches are on core banking solution and the bank has satellite connectivity even in the remotest corner of the state. Today SBB) offers multiple products and delivery channels which include internet banking at all branches, online funds transfer, B2B payments, utility and other biH payments, online tax payments, railway freight payments, etc. The bank has about 500 ATMs which are connected to State Bank group ATM network. Overall, SBB) is far ahead in terms of network, business size and technology particularly compared to cooperative banks in the state.
What are the major projects currently at ')BBF
SBB) is amongst the first few public sector banks in the country with all branches on core banking. One of the major projects at hand is to optimize the usage of technology to offer value added services to customers. Amongst the major objective is to migrate more and more customers towards alternate delivery channels particularly internet banking and ATMs. The bank is also implementing BPR exercise whereby most of the bank office functions are being centralized so that branches can focus more on improving customer service, sales and marketing. We are endeavoring to boost non-interest income by cross selling life and non-life insurance, mutual funds and credit cards, besides expanding the coverage of online share trading facility launched during 2008-09.
Is the NRls' contribution in your bank increasing'? \\ hat is the percentage of the NRls' clientele?
The bank has a customer base of nearly 70,000 NRls. The deposits from NRls have increased from Rs 637 crore in March 2005 to Rs 813 crore in March 2009.
What are the major changes observed in the pattern of savings, fixed deposits, loan taking, etc, over a period of time?
The interest rates have generally gone up in the financial system (barring the last six months when policy rates have been cut aggressively to combat the economic slowdown). As a result, there has been an increasing preference of our customers towards the term deposits which provides better return to depositors. Between March 2005 and March 2009, the share of term deposits in total deposits of the bank has gone up from 56.9% to 62.2%. The share of savings and current deposits has correspondingly gone down, although in quantitative terms, even CASA deposits have grown by over 80% between March 2005 and March 2009. Likewise in case of advances, over the last few years there has been substantial upscaling of advances in commercial and institutional (C&I) segment particularly by financing of infrastructure sector projects. Accordingly, the proportionate share of C&I segment in total advances has gone up from 36.1% in March 2005 to about 50.4% in March 2009. The share of personal segment and small scale industries has correspondingly gone down, although in quantitative terms advances to these segments too have gone up significantly over the last few years.
Mehul: What is the percentage of the people of Rajsthan in the total customer hase of your bank?
Arun Shandilya: SBB) has a strong network of 860 branches. Of these, 698 branches are in Rajasthan which is the largest network among all banks operating in the state. Of these, 524 branches are located in rural and semi-urban areas, which play an important role in rural development and poverty alleviation in the state. Even in terms of number of customers, about 93% of them emanate from Rajasthan. The percentage of SBB) customers (both deposits and advances) is about 9.8% of total population and about 19% of the adult population of the state, which is the highest amongst all banks in Rajasthan. Over the last few years, the bank has made significant progress towards financial inclusion and providing services to hitherto un-banked population of the state.
State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has a strong network of 698 branches in Rajasthan
State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has a strong network of 698 branches in Rajasthan. the largest network among all banks operating in the state. SBBJ alone has a customer base of nearly 70.000 NRls. Arun Shandilya. managing director, SBBJ. speaks to Mehul Dani on a wide range of issues:
Manoj: Heart to heart commerce?
PK Nair: If you analyse the set of customers today, how many of them would be the younger generation and what is the kind of products and services they would ask for in the next five years? Do you have a set of products and services you think you will introduce three years from now? So what happens to that next set of products and services which that generation is going to demand? Where's that coming from?
Venkatramaiah: True to the younger generation today, all banks offer internet banking, mobile banking,
Sunder Rajan: For the Nano car booking loan, we went in for marketing face-to-face. We did not depend much on internet and website. At the branch level, we were driving the branch people to interact with the customers. The results spoke for themselves. The three leading banks that did well were SBl, ICICI Bank followed by Central Bank of India. What we did was display a notice board at the branches and we encouraged the staff to ask customers whether they were interested in booking the Nano. We even offered tips. Some customers were fussy and don't want to buy a low-end car. So we suggested that they buy it as a gift for their son or wife - a second car. We did well. We also had a relationship with some dealers with whom we exchanged information.
PK Nair: What Tata Motors did was created a mini website within their website and in that they had a series of discussions. What they wanted to find out was whether it should be positioned as a second car for customers or a safety car because the world is increasingly going green. They used the internet as a medium as it can be accessed immaterial of the location. From a banker's perspective, we would be mainly interested in the booking amount and the fee amount. For Tata, it helped them immensely to get better feedback on how to segment the car and the customer segment to target and also the additional functionalities they need to bring. Normally they would have done a huge market research exercise that would have cost them crores of rupees. Here they have got the feedback for free which the customer has come and given to them. That's the differentiation you can bring and the trend we are seeing.
Srinivas: You are aware that the public sector banks are becoming tech-savvy and providing lots of facilities, etc. But we believe that human interaction is more important. Earlier RBI pushed for customer satisfaction; from here they have now moved to customer excellence. Now the buzzword is customer ecstasy. We should be in a position to offer services to customers that they are not expecting. This could be in the form of mutual funds, insurance, etc.
Manoj: 1 am sure all of you must have moved house some time or the other in the past. This means changing addresses with banks, insurance, mutual funds. [ am just wondering whether banks be the agents for various other segments such as mobile phones and others?
Hegde: Even the bank pass book is accepted as one of the proof of address.
Taneja: 1 think there are two aspects to this especially when you are engaging with a client whose contact information or address keep changing regularly. First part is there are some ways in which we can anticipate what is going to happen. As a bank, I will accept change in contact numbers through various channels including the phone, internet banking, etc. The address on the account will not change till the customer gives me a letter because that is the KYC. Customers who like to keep in touch with the bank or like to receive alerts will probably update their phone numbers first because it will be done qUickly because typically banks will accept such requests over the phone, or through email or the internet. Whenever that happens, it is an alert by itself. It could also suggest that the customer has shifted the location itself. Maybe as a bank what I can do is ask the customer whether he has shifted his residence too. Other indicators are that might have stopped issuing cheques which were earlier happening on a monthly basis. The other point raised here is whether banks can help the customer change his address in respect to other things such as magazines, mobile phone operators, etc. I think as far as themselves. The three leading banks that did well were SBl, ICICI Bank followed by Central Bank of India. What we did was display a notice board at the branches and we encouraged the staff to ask customers whether they were interested in booking the Nano. We even offered tips. Some customers were fussy and don't want to buy a low-end car. So we suggested that they buy it as a gift for their son or wife - a second car. We did well. We also had a relationship with some dealers with whom we exchanged information.
PK Nair: What Tata Motors did was created a mini website within their website and in that they had a series of discussions. What they wanted to find out was whether it should be positioned as a second car for customers or a safety car because the world is increasingly going green. They used the internet as a medium as it can be accessed immaterial of the location. From a banker's perspective, we would be mainly interested in the booking amount and the fee amount. For Tata, it helped them immensely to get better feedback on how to segment the car and the customer segment to target and also the additional functionalities they need to bring. Normally they would have done a huge market research exercise that would have cost them crores of rupees. Here they have got the feedback for free which the customer has come and given to them. That's the differentiation you can bring and the trend we are seeing.
Srinivas: You are aware that the public sector banks are becoming tech-savvy and providing lots of facilities, etc. But we believe that human interaction is more important. Earlier RBI pushed for customer satisfaction; from here they have now moved to customer excellence. Now the buzzword is customer ecstasy. We should be in a position to offer services to customers that they are not expecting. This could be in the form of mutual funds, insurance, etc.
Manoj: 1 am sure all of you must have moved house some time or the other in the past. This means changing addresses with banks, insurance, mutual funds. [ am just wondering whether banks be the agents for various other segments such as mobile phones and others?
Hegde: Even the bank pass book is accepted as one of the proof of address.
Taneja: 1 think there are two aspects to this especially when you are engaging with a client whose contact information or address keep changing regularly. First part is there are some ways in which we can anticipate what is going to happen. As a bank, I will accept change in contact numbers through various channels including the phone, internet banking, etc. The address on the account will not change till the customer gives me a letter because that is the KYC. Customers who like to keep in touch with the bank or like to receive alerts will probably update their phone numbers first because it will be done qUickly because typically banks will accept such requests over the phone, or through email or the internet. Whenever that happens, it is an alert by itself. It could also suggest that the customer has shifted the location itself. Maybe as a bank what I can do is ask the customer whether he has shifted his residence too. Other indicators are that might have stopped issuing cheques which were earlier happening on a monthly basis. The other point raised here is whether banks can help the customer change his address in respect to other things such as magazines, mobile phone operators, etc. I think as far as
Venkatramaiah: True to the younger generation today, all banks offer internet banking, mobile banking,
Sunder Rajan: For the Nano car booking loan, we went in for marketing face-to-face. We did not depend much on internet and website. At the branch level, we were driving the branch people to interact with the customers. The results spoke for themselves. The three leading banks that did well were SBl, ICICI Bank followed by Central Bank of India. What we did was display a notice board at the branches and we encouraged the staff to ask customers whether they were interested in booking the Nano. We even offered tips. Some customers were fussy and don't want to buy a low-end car. So we suggested that they buy it as a gift for their son or wife - a second car. We did well. We also had a relationship with some dealers with whom we exchanged information.
PK Nair: What Tata Motors did was created a mini website within their website and in that they had a series of discussions. What they wanted to find out was whether it should be positioned as a second car for customers or a safety car because the world is increasingly going green. They used the internet as a medium as it can be accessed immaterial of the location. From a banker's perspective, we would be mainly interested in the booking amount and the fee amount. For Tata, it helped them immensely to get better feedback on how to segment the car and the customer segment to target and also the additional functionalities they need to bring. Normally they would have done a huge market research exercise that would have cost them crores of rupees. Here they have got the feedback for free which the customer has come and given to them. That's the differentiation you can bring and the trend we are seeing.
Srinivas: You are aware that the public sector banks are becoming tech-savvy and providing lots of facilities, etc. But we believe that human interaction is more important. Earlier RBI pushed for customer satisfaction; from here they have now moved to customer excellence. Now the buzzword is customer ecstasy. We should be in a position to offer services to customers that they are not expecting. This could be in the form of mutual funds, insurance, etc.
Manoj: 1 am sure all of you must have moved house some time or the other in the past. This means changing addresses with banks, insurance, mutual funds. [ am just wondering whether banks be the agents for various other segments such as mobile phones and others?
Hegde: Even the bank pass book is accepted as one of the proof of address.
Taneja: 1 think there are two aspects to this especially when you are engaging with a client whose contact information or address keep changing regularly. First part is there are some ways in which we can anticipate what is going to happen. As a bank, I will accept change in contact numbers through various channels including the phone, internet banking, etc. The address on the account will not change till the customer gives me a letter because that is the KYC. Customers who like to keep in touch with the bank or like to receive alerts will probably update their phone numbers first because it will be done qUickly because typically banks will accept such requests over the phone, or through email or the internet. Whenever that happens, it is an alert by itself. It could also suggest that the customer has shifted the location itself. Maybe as a bank what I can do is ask the customer whether he has shifted his residence too. Other indicators are that might have stopped issuing cheques which were earlier happening on a monthly basis. The other point raised here is whether banks can help the customer change his address in respect to other things such as magazines, mobile phone operators, etc. I think as far as themselves. The three leading banks that did well were SBl, ICICI Bank followed by Central Bank of India. What we did was display a notice board at the branches and we encouraged the staff to ask customers whether they were interested in booking the Nano. We even offered tips. Some customers were fussy and don't want to buy a low-end car. So we suggested that they buy it as a gift for their son or wife - a second car. We did well. We also had a relationship with some dealers with whom we exchanged information.
PK Nair: What Tata Motors did was created a mini website within their website and in that they had a series of discussions. What they wanted to find out was whether it should be positioned as a second car for customers or a safety car because the world is increasingly going green. They used the internet as a medium as it can be accessed immaterial of the location. From a banker's perspective, we would be mainly interested in the booking amount and the fee amount. For Tata, it helped them immensely to get better feedback on how to segment the car and the customer segment to target and also the additional functionalities they need to bring. Normally they would have done a huge market research exercise that would have cost them crores of rupees. Here they have got the feedback for free which the customer has come and given to them. That's the differentiation you can bring and the trend we are seeing.
Srinivas: You are aware that the public sector banks are becoming tech-savvy and providing lots of facilities, etc. But we believe that human interaction is more important. Earlier RBI pushed for customer satisfaction; from here they have now moved to customer excellence. Now the buzzword is customer ecstasy. We should be in a position to offer services to customers that they are not expecting. This could be in the form of mutual funds, insurance, etc.
Manoj: 1 am sure all of you must have moved house some time or the other in the past. This means changing addresses with banks, insurance, mutual funds. [ am just wondering whether banks be the agents for various other segments such as mobile phones and others?
Hegde: Even the bank pass book is accepted as one of the proof of address.
Taneja: 1 think there are two aspects to this especially when you are engaging with a client whose contact information or address keep changing regularly. First part is there are some ways in which we can anticipate what is going to happen. As a bank, I will accept change in contact numbers through various channels including the phone, internet banking, etc. The address on the account will not change till the customer gives me a letter because that is the KYC. Customers who like to keep in touch with the bank or like to receive alerts will probably update their phone numbers first because it will be done qUickly because typically banks will accept such requests over the phone, or through email or the internet. Whenever that happens, it is an alert by itself. It could also suggest that the customer has shifted the location itself. Maybe as a bank what I can do is ask the customer whether he has shifted his residence too. Other indicators are that might have stopped issuing cheques which were earlier happening on a monthly basis. The other point raised here is whether banks can help the customer change his address in respect to other things such as magazines, mobile phone operators, etc. I think as far as
advertise their personal messages on the board - anything that they may want to advertise. This has happened 10 years ago.
PK Nair: But the point is that you may 2000 branches and it is hard to replicate the same across all the branches.
Rajesh: What I am trying to say is that informally the PSUs are already doing it. They interact with so many customers daily that it is easy for them to bounce off the information to customers. For instance, if a customer purchases a car and is unhappy with his choice, the bank on hearing about this could pass on the information to other prospective customers. They can then make it formal.
PK Nair: Do you offer the car loan from a branch or do you offer it from a retail asset group?
Asha: It is now a centralized retail asset hub. But the leads are sourced through the branch. When 1 have a wide network of 2000 branches, why do I need to centralize it? Some banks do not have the advantage of a network.
Narayanan: The question is whether your marketing is information driven or transformation driven. Information driven marketing may be able to give you volumes but not values, especially in an era which is either customer convenience or affinity. What is required is to reach the headlines or the heartlines. That's what going to count. If you manage to hit the heartlines of the customer, there is no need to hit the headlines. Information may help you to reach the headlines, but unless your personal relationship at the touchpoint of the customer will only help you to reach the heartlines. And when you reach the heartlines, your relationship with the customer gets strengthened. And that's why it's the greatest relationship for banking because it is almost relationship driven.
Rajesh: What I am trying to say is that informally the PSUs are already doing it. They interact with so many customers daily that it is easy for them to bounce off the information to customers. For instance, if a customer purchases a car and is unhappy with his choice, the bank on hearing about this could pass on the information to other prospective customers. They can then make it formal.
PK Nair: Do you offer the car loan from a branch or do you offer it from a retail asset group?
Asha: It is now a centralized retail asset hub. But the leads are sourced through the branch. When 1 have a wide network of 2000 branches, why do I need to centralize it? Some banks do not have the advantage of a network.
Narayanan: The question is whether your marketing is information driven or transformation driven. Information driven marketing may be able to give you volumes but not values, especially in an era which is either customer convenience or affinity. What is required is to reach the headlines or the heartlines. That's what going to count. If you manage to hit the heartlines of the customer, there is no need to hit the headlines. Information may help you to reach the headlines, but unless your personal relationship at the touchpoint of the customer will only help you to reach the heartlines. And when you reach the heartlines, your relationship with the customer gets strengthened. And that's why it's the greatest relationship for banking because it is almost relationship driven.
CHALLENGES IN MIGRATION
What have been the challenges for these institutions in migrating from a legacy system to the new system?
Arivazhagan avers that HDFC, even when it came to be established, had been a forward-looking organization. "There had been fairly large scale automation in the organization - like in accounts. As such, automation of the loan system was not a major challenge. Even employees were pretty ready and they undertook the migration in an effortless manner. We had made provisions for continuous training for them at various levels. At no point of time, we had any parallel system running. Again the roll over was done in phases, location by location and this also helped in creating an awareness and in training the staff appropriately."
In the case of Union Bank of India, while data capturing in the manual system has been a difficult proposition, the bank had CBS in place and there had been no major legacy issues. "The database was available centrally," says Srivastava, "and so it was a question of implementing the system and training the people to make use of it. We had a team of 113 people and we implemented the system in a phased manner with meticulous planning. We adopted 'training the trainer' method and this proved to be beneficial. In a matter of eight to nine months, we could train some 3,700 people across all our branches before the system was rolled out in December 2008. This has been a sort of record."
Says Saraswati Shankar: "I do not foresee any major challenges in migrating to this system as the bank is very tech savvy and there is a CBS in place. Even training the people is not going to be any major challenge. LAPS will only strengthen our operations and business. All our branches will be covered by the system once implemented."
For Vijaya Bank, though the existing loan processing mechanism is predominantly manual, Kalia expects the migration to be a smooth affair. The bank will undertake to give adequate hands-on training to the field functionaries.
Shamugam says even when haVing a manual system, Mahindra Finance had operated on a centralized model - data available centrally. "This proved to be beneficial for us when we shifted from a legacy system to a robust ERP system. This has enabled us from 2000 till today to have a full fledged system to seamlessly capture data from various locations in a centralized server and to make the data and information available at various required levels. This actually helped us to automate our loan system in a smoother and effortless manner."
Arivazhagan avers that HDFC, even when it came to be established, had been a forward-looking organization. "There had been fairly large scale automation in the organization - like in accounts. As such, automation of the loan system was not a major challenge. Even employees were pretty ready and they undertook the migration in an effortless manner. We had made provisions for continuous training for them at various levels. At no point of time, we had any parallel system running. Again the roll over was done in phases, location by location and this also helped in creating an awareness and in training the staff appropriately."
In the case of Union Bank of India, while data capturing in the manual system has been a difficult proposition, the bank had CBS in place and there had been no major legacy issues. "The database was available centrally," says Srivastava, "and so it was a question of implementing the system and training the people to make use of it. We had a team of 113 people and we implemented the system in a phased manner with meticulous planning. We adopted 'training the trainer' method and this proved to be beneficial. In a matter of eight to nine months, we could train some 3,700 people across all our branches before the system was rolled out in December 2008. This has been a sort of record."
Says Saraswati Shankar: "I do not foresee any major challenges in migrating to this system as the bank is very tech savvy and there is a CBS in place. Even training the people is not going to be any major challenge. LAPS will only strengthen our operations and business. All our branches will be covered by the system once implemented."
For Vijaya Bank, though the existing loan processing mechanism is predominantly manual, Kalia expects the migration to be a smooth affair. The bank will undertake to give adequate hands-on training to the field functionaries.
Shamugam says even when haVing a manual system, Mahindra Finance had operated on a centralized model - data available centrally. "This proved to be beneficial for us when we shifted from a legacy system to a robust ERP system. This has enabled us from 2000 till today to have a full fledged system to seamlessly capture data from various locations in a centralized server and to make the data and information available at various required levels. This actually helped us to automate our loan system in a smoother and effortless manner."
LOS offers interface with USDA system
Associated Software Consultants (ASC) PowerLender loan origination software (LOS) has been updated to offer lenders the ability to upload loan files to the US department of agriculture's (USDA) Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS). PowerLender successfully completed a series of compatibility tests for submitting files to the USDA's GUS using both the MISMO AUS 2.3.1 .xml format, as well as the Fannie Mae DU/ DU3.2 format. The USDA Rural Development Program, which offers loans that do not require a down payment or private mortgage insurance, traditionally offered loans for low- and very-low-income homeowners. inputs to these agencies as well as the RBI as per mandatory requirements. The reports are generated by the system and there is no manual intervention at any point of time. As I told you earlier, we subscribe to Crisil's rating services and the rating of a customer is carried out in the system using the Crisil figures."
Arivazhagan goes a step further and says HDFC's system has a provision to predict possible payment defaults by borrowers. "We generate reports to credit information agencies based on the behavior of the customers."
Arivazhagan goes a step further and says HDFC's system has a provision to predict possible payment defaults by borrowers. "We generate reports to credit information agencies based on the behavior of the customers."
DATA INTEGRITY
How is storage of data done and how is its integrity ensured throughout the loan lifecycle?
Srivastava says the system has strong access controls. Data inputting is based on maker/checker concept while documents are stored in PDF format. "Access control ensures that the integrity of data is maintained all throughout the loan life cycle," he adds.
Arivazhagan too says in the HDFC system there is a very tight hierarchy-based access controls. The system is also protected through the usual firewalls and anti-virus systems. The customers are given user IDs and passwords to access the system.
"The data is basically in PDF files. However, I must say that compared to banks or mutual funds, our transactions are not huge. It could be just IS transactions at the maximum per account. Hence storage is not a major issue for us," he says.
Kalia says the system the bank has opted for uses SQL data base and security features of SQL database are used to ensure data integrity.
Union Bank of India is using a scoring system based on credit scores evolved by credit information agencies. "We also give
Srivastava says the system has strong access controls. Data inputting is based on maker/checker concept while documents are stored in PDF format. "Access control ensures that the integrity of data is maintained all throughout the loan life cycle," he adds.
Arivazhagan too says in the HDFC system there is a very tight hierarchy-based access controls. The system is also protected through the usual firewalls and anti-virus systems. The customers are given user IDs and passwords to access the system.
"The data is basically in PDF files. However, I must say that compared to banks or mutual funds, our transactions are not huge. It could be just IS transactions at the maximum per account. Hence storage is not a major issue for us," he says.
Kalia says the system the bank has opted for uses SQL data base and security features of SQL database are used to ensure data integrity.
Union Bank of India is using a scoring system based on credit scores evolved by credit information agencies. "We also give
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