Mumbai, April 22 : India's second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank said Tuesday its net profit grew by 23.1 percent to Rs. 2,326.52 crore ($384.8 million) in the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs. 1,889.84 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.

This is the slowest pace of growth in the bank's quarterly profit in more than a decade. However, the number is better than the markets estimates and it was reflected in the company's share price.

London, April 18 - British Foreign Secretary William Hague Thursday slammed Israel's recent steps towards settlement expansion in the West Bank, stressing that negotiations are the only way to peace, British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) announced Thursday.

"The UK condemns the decisions taken by the Israeli authorities to change the status of a significant amount of land around the illegal settler outpost of Netiv Ha'avot and to create a new settlement in Hebron," Xinhua quoted Hague as saying in a statement.

Canadian central bank, the Bank of Canada has appointed Carolyn Wilkins as its senior deputy governor on Friday.

The bank has said that it is promoting an insider with experience with financial markets.

The senior banker also has credibility as the second in command at the central bank. Wilkins has been working for more than a decade with the bank and has been working as the adviser to the governor.

The South African central bank has indicated that it is not looking to intervene to control the weakness in the national currency after the Rand remained low in the currency market.

Governor Gill Marcus of the Central bank of South Africa said that he expects the currency is expected to remain volatile but pointed out that the central bank is not likely to intervene. The country has a reserve of only $50 billion, which restricts the ability to boost its local currency.

The troubled CO-OP Bank has said that it needs more time to release its financial details as the bank evaluates the details of it's the gap in its capital.

The new head of the bank, Niall Booker had earlier said that the results will be announced 8 April but the results were further delayed to 11 April, 2014. The Co-op Bank revealed a £400 million gap in its capital position. The gap was additional to the £1.5billion gap identified in the previous year.

The ongoing depreciation in the value of rupee is being linked to suspected dollar buying by the Reserve bank of India (RBI).

The partly-convertible Indian rupee traded at 60.30 per U. S. dollar in morning session on Friday, at a weaker level than its previous close of 60.1650/1750 per dollar.

While demand for dollar by importers is surely a factor behind decline of the local currency against the U. S. dollar, many analysts are of the view that the central bank is also buying dollars in to increase its foreign exchange (forex) reserves.

Cameron Clyne, the head of the Australia Bank has announced his decision to leave the bank and retire from executive life on July 31.

Clyne is leaving the multi-million dollar job at the bank in order to be with his family. The senior banker, which is now 46 year's old, has surprised the market with the announcement of his retirement. Mr Clyne has worked as the chief executive for a period of more than five and a half years.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, has extended the date of special home loan scheme, which offers special discounts, beyond 31st of March for an indefinite period.

The special home loan scheme was launched in December last year, when the lender slashed its home loan rates by up to 0.4 per cent for new customers. For women borrowers, it offered an additional concession of 0.05 per cent. The scheme was originally scheduled to end on March 31.

Stock in IDFC gained as much as 8.6 per cent in morning session trade on Thursday after the Mumbai-based company became one of the two entities to get a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The central bank granted a banking licence to IDFC for an initial period of 18 months, during which the company will have to meet all requirements laid down by the apex bank.

Kolkata-based microfinance company Bandhan Financial is another of the two entities to win a licence to create a network of bank branches across the country.

Mumbai, April 1: The granting of new bank licences has no link with politics and the process is purely economic and regulatory, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said Tuesday.

"This (issue of bank licence) is not in any way a political process, it is an economic and regulatory process and is to be seen as distant and different (from politics)," Rajan told media persons here after announcing the RBI's monetary policy.

New Delhi, April 1 - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left key interest rates unchanged in its first bi-monthly monetary policy review Tuesday.

The repo rate or the interest that banks pay when they borrow money from the RBI to meet their short-term fund requirements, is left unchanged at 8 percent, while the reverse repo rate, or the interest that the RBI pays to commercial banks when they park their surplus short-term funds with the central bank, is adjusted to 7 percent. (IANS)

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India will start looking for a new deputy governor as incumbent KC Chakrabarty is scheduled to retire from the post in April.

Taking a first-of-its-kind initiative, Bank of India (BOI) has launched Instant Money Transfer (IMT) system that enables card-less cash withdrawal at its IMT-enabled automated teller machines (ATMs).

Innovative money remittance facility IMT allows a customer to send money to a receiver just by using the recipient's mobile number through the bank's ATM or retail internet banking service.  The recipient can withdraw the money from a BOI ATM without using a card.

Shillong, March 25 : Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) Tuesday unveiled its 21st branch in the matrilineal state of Meghalaya.

Shillong branch, the first branch of the BMB in this mountainous state capital of Meghalaya, is dedicated to the public and the women in particular.

"It is a privilege for our (all-women) bank to have a branch in this matrilineal state of Meghalaya.  Our bank which is an all-women bank is designed to cater to the needs of women and offer them the entire banking and financial services," said BMB chairman and managing director Usha Ananthasubramanian.

The Bombay High Court on Monday agreed to hear Madhu Kapur's plea that challenges the appointment of three directors on the board of private-sector lender Yes Bank.

Moscow, March 25 - Risk of recession in the Russian economy exists, but it is too early to make precise forecasts due to high uncertainty of macroeconomic situation, head of Russia's largest bank said Monday, the media reported.

Recession or flat growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) will occur if capital outflow amounts to $100 billion this year, Xinhua quoted German Gref, CEO of the state-owned Sberbank, as saying.

"So far, everything is okay. Everything is rather stable," Gref said.

Investment bank, the Macquarie Group has said that it expects its prof to rise as much as 45 per cent after ti recorded strong growth in its fixed income business.

The Bharatiya Mahila Bank Limited, which is an all women bank established four months earlier, has opened a new branch in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday.

BMB chairman and managing director UshaAnanthasubramanian said that the company will now focus on marketing activities this year in order to enter into the Indian banking sector. Even as the bank's target customers are women, she said that the bank is not against men customers and employees and pointed out that some of the branches are already run by male employees.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not yet started inflation targeting as it was suggested to do by the Urjit Patel committee, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said.

Mr. Rajan said the central bank was still discussing recommendations made by Deputy Governor Urjit Patel-led committee with the Union government. He stressed that inflation targeting appeared to be a sensitive issue.

The Co-operative Group has said that its chief executive, Richard Pennycook will work as chief operating officer after the group finds a new chief executive.

The move is part of a major management shake-up following the resignation of the chief executive, Euan Sutherland recently. Sutherland had been working to garner support for the plans to revive business but announced his decision to leave the company in the previous week describing the business as ungovernable.