average quarterly balance: be careful…

if you opened a bank account and the bank said ‘you have to keep an average quarterly balance of Rs. 5000′ please ask them what it means. In many banks this AQB means all your balances across savings, current, fixed deposits,…are all considered while this amount is calculated. Recently one senior citizen who had opened [...]

What is the government up to?

If you were a big businessman would you create COMPETITION for yourself? Kind of a stupid question right? Let us see what the Government of India does! In the life insurance business it already OWNS India’s most valuable player viz LIC. However it creates SBI, Star Union Daichi, Canara Hsbc Insurance, Idbi Fortis, ….and I [...]

Banking is a profitable business, and simple too!

From times immemorial banking has been a fantastic business. Ask the Marwaris and the Chettiars. It is a simple business too. Borrow money at 3%p.a. lend it at 6%p.a. and keep the 3% margins. If  I am not wrong it used to be called the 3-6-3 rule of banking. This rule said borrow at 3%, [...]

RBI and banking

RBI is the banking regulator and obviously it has a role in development of the banking industry, right? Well, over the last so many years what is the penetration of banking in India? Well about 6-8% of the country’s population has some access to banking. Why we do not have banks with EXCLUSIVE mandate to [...]

All banks are safe….Mr. Subramanyam

I recently met a 85 year old man who has all his investments in bank deposits and post office deposits. This is a good portfolio – and he has about Rs. 12 lakhs. As his income is below taxable level he does not pay Income tax, nor does he file his IT return. He had [...]

Investments in 2012

You could take an optimistic scenario or a pessimistic scenario for 2012 and in the years to come… Let me see….here I think PESSIMISTICALLY what can happen: 1. Collapse of the European Banking system: just because it is unable to bear the load, the banks will just collapse. In fact on 24th of Dec the [...]