HDFC Car loan EMI calculator – A tool must look out for

Are you planning to bring in a new car to your home and give a fascinating fit to your family? Is the loan factor stopping you from doing the same? Then you should give a look at the HDFC Car loan EMI Calculator and formulate how you can repay loan in a minimum amount of time. There are few fields that you need to build in so that the tool can come up with attractive offers for you. The simple questions like the place you belong to, your gross monthly salary, the car you are looking to buy and other such easy to fill in fields will make your job easy to avail the loan.

Depending on which car you want to buy, HDFC Car loan EMI Calculator provides you with options to pay EMI under Rs 10000 a month as well.

Summary: HDFC Car loan EMI Calculator provides you with wide range of options to pay your EMI amount.

HDFC secures place amongst world’s most ethical firms

HDFC officials have a reason to smile and to be proud of as they have been listed amongst the world’s most ethical companies fro this year and most importantly it is the only firm form India that managed to secure a place in the list.

The Ethisphere Institute prepared a list of 110 organizations of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, short listing from a total of nearly 3000 companies from more than 100 countries there were nominated or that nominated themselves for the consideration.

This designation is awarded to the companies that have been following ethics and compliance programmes is far better way then the other involved in the same industry.

The CEO and Vice–Chairman of HDFC Bank Mr. Keki Mistry said “It obviously feels nice to be one of the world's most ethical company and the only one from India. HDFC is one of the most trusted brands in the country and for a financial services company it is very important that people perceive it as ethical."

HDFC Bank launches easy-to-remember phone number

To make customer care service of the bank more user friendly, HDFC Bank has launched an easy to remember phone number for the customers.

The number for the customers in Mumbai, New Delhi and NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata is 61606161 and for those in Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Kochi, Patna (Bihar and Jharkhand) the number is 6160616.

The customers can call on the new numbers for their queries and all banking needs. The bank offers this service in 9 regional languages.

HDFC Bank upgrades phone banking service

HDFC Bank yesterday announced that it has fully equipped the phone banking facility as per the guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India. In order to make transactions over phone safer the Central Bank introduced several new guidelines and instructed the banks to upgrade their systems accordingly.

According to the new guidelines, the customers will require a password generated by the bank each time they make a transaction over phone. Earlier the Reserve Bank decided January 1 as the deadline for the banks to upgrade their systems but some banks asked for more time, so the Central Bank decided February 1 as the revised deadline.

A senior bank official said "Phone banking has emerged as one of the key delivery channels at HDFC Bank .With technological advancements, it is now possible to offer single set of phone numbers across multiple locations."

HDFC forays into education sector

HDFC Bank recently forayed into the education sector. The bank inked deal with Indus World Schools. The deal is believed to be ranging somewhere between 40 to 50 crore.

The Indian schooling sector is believed to be amongst one of the fastest growing in the world. Last year the Indian market accounted for 40 percent of the total education market across the world.

Managing Director of HDFC Bank Renu Sud Karnad said “HDFC and CL have a lot to gain from this relationship. Together, we can make a significant positive impact on the quality of school education in the country.”

Indus World Schools is a unit of education company Career Launchers. Currently IWS comprises of 14 schools in total across the country. IWS also contributes to the social cause as it runs schools for underprivileged students in Andhra Pradesh and in Gujarat and Punjab through Government partnerships. The group plans to take the total number of schools to a staggering 75 in next five years.

HDFC judged as most popular bank for 2010

According to an online survey HDFC Bank was judged as the most popular bank for the year 2010. The survey was based on the number of visitors that visited the web site of the bank per day nad rakings from various ranking portals and analytical data

According to the web site 417360 visitors visited the web site of the bank per day. The largest lender of the country was judged in the fourth place according to the survey.

HDFC Bank was followed by ICICI Bank and Axis bank in the charts. With 1.32 lac visitors the State Bank of India topped the PSU segment.

Citi Bank that is in headlines these days due to the scam topped the chart in the foreign banks category. Union Bank of India was judged as most popular nationalized bank while Bank of India as most popular nationalized bank of the country.

HDFC Bank revises its BPLR by 50bps

HDFC Bank has again revised its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR). Lender has raised its BPLR by 50bps to 16.25 percent. The revised rates will be applicable from immediate effect.

Thus all BPLR-linked loans, including vehicle and personal loans, which were taken by the bank customers before July, 1 2010, will rise in respective proportions.

Under BPLR the customers can avail loans at a discounted rate to the BPLR offered by the lender. As per Reserve Bank of India’s directive from July 1, 2010 all the banks have moved to the base rate system and lending loans to the new borrowers on the base rate. HDFC has set its base rate at 7.25%.

A senior bank official said due to rising cost of funds bank has raised its BPLR. Earlier bank had raised term deposit rates across various maturity periods.

The official said, “Deposit rates in the banking system could move up further by 50-75 basis points by the end of the financial year. Depending on credit demand, base rate could also come up for review in October.”

However, in the last one month almost all the banks, including the State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India and IDBI Bank have increased their BPLRs on an average by 50-75 basis points.

PNB has raised its BPLR to 11.75 per cent from 11 per cent with effect from August 1. Union Bank hiked to 12.25 per cent from 11.75 per cent with effect from August 4. SBI raised its BPLR by 50 basis points to 12.25 per cent with effect from August 17. ICICI Bank increased BPLR by 50 basis points to 16.25 per cent with effect from August 18.

All the banks have also raised their term deposit rates by 25-150 basis points across various maturity periods.

According to financial analysts, bank by rising the BPLR will be try to move the existing loan customers to the base rate. Because banks do not want to be under the burden of administering two benchmark lending rates.

HDFC’s education arm Credila to lend more this fiscal

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), educational loan unit Credila Financial Services has set a target of increasing its loan book 2.5 times in the current financial year.

HDFC, early this month acquired an additional 10 per cent with which its stake in Credila increase to 51 per cent, is planning to take control of the distribution network and customer base of HDFC Bank to expand.

Credila Country Head Prashant Bhonsle said: “We have so far disbursed over Rs 40 crore and plan to reach Rs 100 crore by March 2011. HDFC can help us scale up quickly. Along with its brand equity, we can leverage its distribution structure and network”.

The public sector banks (PSBs) are the main players of the education loan. To be in competition with PSBs Credila has to cover a wide distance.

In 2009-10 PSBs disbursed educational loans worth Rs 8,000 crore to 320,000 students while there outstanding loans amounted to Rs 35,628.33 crore at the end of March 2010.

He said, “We can access its (HDFC’s) existing customers and database. It will not only help us expand but also bring down the cost of funds.”

The company is also having talks with other banks in order to diversify its sources of funds. PNB is giving credit whereas CARE has assigned a “BBB”-rating for its term loan facility (Rs 100 crore).

Currently Credila is doing 65 per cent of lending, to students studying within the country and the loan is given mainly for management courses in India, in the United States the disbursement is largely for masters in science, followed by management courses.

Bhonsle said, “This is an asset class in India which has not been focused on as a separate venture. While PSBs have been offering student loan services, they have been selling it as part of the product portfolio they offer.”

Giving details on where does Credila stands out vis-à-vis banks; Bhonsle says the loan facilities offered by banks are mostly identical. Moreover banks sanction loans only after a student has attained admission. Whereas, non-banking financial companies based on domain expertise and their understanding of the background, approve loans before admission.

Credila says that it is more rationalized on courses and career prospects for students, due to which it is more flexible. It gives loans against less security (collateral) as compared to big commercial banks. Bhonsle said, “We are flexible. Our domain expertise helps us extend this facility in such a large market of opportunity.”

It also has a different approach. To get loan student has to visit bank branch whereas Credila reaches out to students for loans.

“Students and parents want the kind of help that we are offering –reaching their door steps. If someone comes to them and explains everything, it makes sense. Small things are of large importance,” added Bhonsle.

Credila’s keep its back-end operations updated on education institutes. It has a database of more than 20,000 colleges.

The company is offering loans between interest rates of 9.75 per cent and 12.5 per cent and provides loans up to Rs 50 lakh, while PSBs do not lend more than Rs 20 lakh.

HDFC Bank has raised withdrawal limit and shopping limit of all debit cards

At present customers are allowed to withdraw up to Rs50,000 per day on their debit cards from ATM. But HDFC Bank has raised the withdrawal limit and shopping limit of all debit cards, effective June 1.

The ATM withdrawal and shopping limits, respectively, for the Imperia Gold card has been increased to Rs1 lakh and Rs1.25 lakh from Rs50,000 per day; Easy Shop Regular International/Maestro/NRO cards has been increased from Rs25,000 and Rs40,000 from Rs15,000 and 25,000 while on Kid’s Advantage card the limit has been increased to Rs2,500 from Rs1,500 and Rs1,000 and on Women’s card it has been increased up to Rs25,000 from Rs20,000.

However ICICI Bank allows withdrawals up to Rs1 lakh and a transaction limit of Rs1.5 lakh on its Titanium, Platinum and Signature debit cards per day.

While on Gold card the withdrawal as well as transaction limit is up to Rs 50,000.

On Axis Bank’s Gold Card withdrawal limit is up to Rs 50,000, but shopping limit is of Rs1.75 lakh per day.

Withdrawal limits for customers set by the banks are according to Reserve Bank of India guidelines.

A banking analyst with a brokerage firm pointed out, “Withdrawal limits set by banks usually depend on their customer bases and the nature and ticket sizes of the transactions.”

“Few transactions or withdrawals by our customers touch the limit. So, as of now, we haven’t thought of raising those limits,” said SS Ranjan, chief financial officer, State Bank of India (SBI).

Meanwhile, SBI, country’s largest public sector lender has a withdrawal limit of Rs Rs40,000 and transaction limit of Rs50,000 per day.

However cash withdrawals from the ATMs of other banks have not been changed it is still Rs 10,000 per transaction, allowing five such transactions a month.

HDFC follows SBI's suit and extends its teaser home loan scheme

Earlier HDFC Bank following the suit of State Bank of India (SBI) had reintroduced its teaser rate scheme and the last date was April 30. As SBI is getting good response for its teaser home loan scheme so it extended the up till June 30. Although HDFC did not said anything about the extension of the scheme but, now it has also extended its special home loan scheme till June 30.

Under this special scheme, HDFC will offer a fixed rate of 8.25% up to March 2011, 9% for the next one year and floating rate thereafter to all customers who avail at least part of the loan by June 30, an HDFC spokesperson told.

Earlier, when the Reserve Bank’s raised concern over such teaser schemes all banks, except SBI had stopped their teaser schemes or special home loan offers under which they offered loans at a cheaper rate to customers for a fixed period.
As HDFC has announced extension of the scheme it is believed more banks might also announce similar products to attract borrowers.

HDFC expect rates to increase by 25-50 bps in the first quarter of next fiscal

According to Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), country’s largest mortgage company interest rates will probably increase by 25 to 50 basis points in the first quarter of the next fiscal. This was pointed out by HDFC joint managing director Renu Karnad, who informed reporters that HDFC is also expecting increase in loan disbursements of by 22 to 25% during the current fiscal.

While speaking on the sidelines of a function marking the launch of the Real Estate Sensitive Index (Ressex), Ms Karnad stated attention is being paid over the rise in the real estates prices which have increased sharply due to the recovery in capital markets.

In her speech, Ms Karnad said, “Even in today’s ‘affordable housing’ mantra days, the common man has to shell out more than an arm and a leg to buy his home. “In India, housing, if priced correctly, has an enormous demand. Given the acute housing shortage, it is unlikely that there will be any saturation in the market for a long time to come.”

Ms Karnad added, the real estate index, will be helpful for the customers and lender as they will be to take a view of the housing market. The index has been developed by a private consultancy firm Liases Foras.

“In the last year alone, which was one of the toughest periods in economic history, the real estate industry in India has managed to grow at over 16% YoY. As a contributor to GDP growth, current estimates place the real estate sector at 8.86% of GDP. At the same time, over Rs 230 billion is being proposed to be raised across 8-10 real estate IPOs within the next 6-12 months. The post-crisis events have shown us the importance of transparency, compliance and integrity in the business world,” she said.

“The housing industry in particular, which addresses the needs of millions of consumers, requires a greater degree of sophistication in its reporting of accessible and value-adding information,” she added.

CCI to investigate loan prepayment penalty charged by banks

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is keeping an eye on few of private sector lenders including HDFC Bank, Deutsche Postbank Home Finance and LIC Housing Finance, as they are levying a penalty on consumers who are paying off their loans ahead of schedule.

According to a person closely watching the development in case the CCI found the practice anti-competition, then either the regulator or its appellate tribunal can put ban on this practice across the industry and can also penalize banks for charging the levy. The person informed the regulator is trying to gather information from these institutions. A senior CCI official refused to comment on this.

Replying to an e-mail sent by ET, HDFC, India’s largest mortgage lender said, “....the business of a bank/ financial institution involves borrowing and lending and in the process the lending institution tries to run a matched balance sheet of assets and liabilities. Prepayments are essentially accelerated payments before the schedule. Any prepayment will disturb the asset-liability match and in order to mitigate the negative impact of the prepayments the institutions/banks charge a prepayment charge. Every time when there is a prepayment from the borrowers it will not be feasible for the banks to prepay its lenders as its loan agreement with lenders may either not permit it or permit it only with certain charges, notice period and may be subject to other conditions.” HDFC is charging maximum prepayment levy of 2% of the amount prepaid.

When contacted Deutsche Postbank Home finance, it declined to discuss the issue, stating that the matter was sub judice, while HDFC Bank and LIC Housing Finance, refused to comment on this. Till now no directives have been issued to banks, by the banking regulator on a prepayment penalty. When newsperson contacted, RBI governor D Subbarao said in Mumbai, that complaints regarding levying a penalty will be discussed with the ombudsman.

However some of the lenders inflict prepayment charge only in the cases where customer decided to refinance the loan by borrowing at a lower interest from another institution. An HDFC spokesperson said, “The policies of HDFC have always favored customers prepaying loans from their own savings. For example, there are no prepayment charges on part prepayments up to 25% of the opening balance or if the customer prepays his entire loan after three years from his own savings.” In the last one year when banks began to lower interest rates and also agreed to refinance existing loans to gain market share, then only borrowers came to know about the charges relating to loan prepayment. Early this year State Bank of India, country’s largest lender, initiated with its 8% home loan.

The senior banker pointed out although prepayment levied on fixed interest rate is justified, but according to consumers it is not right to attach these charges with floating rate loans. Moreover, when interest rates come down, not many banks pass on the full benefits to their customers, but they are quick in increasing either the EMI (equated monthly installment) or the loan tenor when interest rates start rising.

Thus due to these levied charges, borrowers who had taken floating rate loans restrain from switching to another lender that is offering a lower rate loan.

On the other hand banks also restrain from giving benefits of lower rates to the existing borrowers, instead they offer cheaper loans to attract new customer. CCI is already looking into prepayment charges for auto, personal and other loans, but in case of home loans the issue seems to be significant which have tenors of as long as 15 to 20 years.

A person familiar with the CCI investigation stated, “Prepayment penalty comes in the way of a customer who wants to close a loan and avail of another loan from a bank that lends at a lower interest rate. It makes such migration economically unviable unless the interest rate differential between the banks is more than the quantum of penalty. Such exit load on loans is an entry-barrier for new products in the market and hence anti-competitive”.

The CCI, will also investigate whether the charging of levying prepayment penalty leads to collusive behavior.

HDFC Bank revised lending rate by 25 basis points

HDFC Bank country’s second largest bank among private sector lender announced cut in the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 15.75 per cent.

According to information placed on HDFC bank website the revised benchmark prime lending rate of 15.75 per cent per annum has come into effect from July 20. With the cut in lending rates the fixed deposits rated have also been reduced effective from May 18.

In the past six months, the PLR has been revised by 75 basis points earlier bank had revised PLR in December 2008, when the rate was reduced by 50 basis points to 16 per cent.

The loans given by the private sector banks are mostly rated below PLR, but some of the corporate loans they relate to the benchmark rate.

As there is variation in PLR therefore to study the relevance of PLR in the changed scenario, last month the Reserve Bank formed a six-member working group to study the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) system and suggest a single method for pricing of floating rate loans, which will help in bringing more transparency in fixation of interest rates on housing loans by banks.

The working group is headed by the RBI Executive Director Deepak Mohanty includes J P Morgan India chief economist Jahangir Aziz and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad Professor as its members.

In addition to them, other members of working group include RBI chief general manager P Vijaya Bhaskar and Janak Raj, advisor-in-charge in the monetary policy department of the central bank and RBI's monetary policy department director Himanshu Joshi, who is a member secretary.

According to RBI release, "The working group may co-opt any other members as special invitees and may consult with all stakeholders".

The group would be placing its report by end-August 2009. In the report the group will give some suggestions for a suitable benchmark for floating rate loans in the retail segment.

Also there will be some recommendation for an appropriate loan pricing system based on international best practices, the release stated. It said the reviewing is being done to make the credit pricing more transparent.

HDFC says demand for home loans is picking up

According to a banker who had attended the meeting of the Finance Minister and PSU bank chiefs said that the finance ministry as well as the Reserve Bank of India wanted a steep fall in lending and deposit rates because it is believed this will cover RBI interest rate curve, which is one of the reason for the absence of the strong pick-up in the credit demand.

The banker informed private and foreign banks have reduced lending as they have become cautious and risk reluctant, whereas the force of increasing the loans growth and meeting credit needs of the corporate sector is being endured by state-owned banks.

However the finance ministry and RBI officials have been advising the banking sector to pass on the benefits of lower interest rates to customers. After the meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, a few banks such as State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and HDFC Bank reduced their deposit and loan rates.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), India’s leading housing finance lender, too had slashed its deposit rates by 25 basis points (0.25%) after the FM-bankers meet but has not taken any decision on reducing lending rates in the near future. Earlier the housing finance lender had reduced its lending rates on May 7 by 0.25% after bringing it down by 0.50% in March. At present the institution is waiting for directions on interest rates from Budget 2009-10 as well as Reserve Bank of India's credit policy review will be presented in July before moving on loan rates.

Recently Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC, informed that interest rates will be reviewed only after decline in cost of funds. Currently HDFC is charging 9.25% for loans up to Rs 30 lakh, 9.75 for loans between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1 crore and 10% for loans above Rs 1 crore.

Sources at HDFC told UTVi that recently demand for housing is picking up substantially as against to what was seen in the last quarter of 2008. There has been increase in loan approvals in June which have exceeded the May numbers of the institution, as per the information provided by sources. The leader in housing finance is also likely to maintain growth in net profit for the current financial year at 20%. In the previous financial year, HDFC had registered a profit of Rs 2,268 crore, up 24% in comparison to the previous fiscal. The lender had approved around Rs 49,166 crore while disbursals amounted to Rs 39,650 crore in 2008-09.

HDFC Bank awarded ‘Best Retail Bank in India’

HDFC Bank has won award for offering best retail banking services. On Tuesday bank released a statement in which it stated it has won The Asian Banker's Best Retail Bank in India award for the year 2008. In the statement it also said that bank has won the award for the third year in a row.

The Asian Banker magazine reported that HDFC Bank has been awarded the Best Retail Bank in India because for its robust core funding, superior financial performance, sustainability and effective distribution channels amidst a highly-challenging environment.

Strict finance terms for Nano finance scheme

Tata Motors is giving final touches to the launch of Nano car. The company is having final talks with the State Bank of India (SBI) India’s largest bank, regarding finance scheme for the Nano car. Company has tied-up with SBI for the finance scheme for Nano, under which the bank will be financing 70 per cent of the price of the car at an interest rate of 14 to 14.75 per cent for a tenure of up to 5 years.

Last week meetings were held between General Managers of SBI branches across the country with the senior Tata Motors executives to decide the branches through which the finance will be offered and the method of rolling out the loan scheme across the country, especially in rural locations and small towns.

The strict terms have been made for the Nano finance scheme in comparison to those offered by both government-owned and private sector banks for comparable tenures. Currently government-owned banks are charging between 11.5 and 12 per cent, while SBI before 31 May is charging a concessional 10 per cent for car loans for the first year as part of a special scheme.

Private Banks like HDFC Bank are charging interest of 12 to 12.5 per cent and ICICI Bank 14.5 per cent. Most banks offer finance up to 85 per cent of the price of the car.

As per information provided by sources, the company has already received over 40 million queries on the Nano on its websites. According to dealers the cost of the opening level model will be Rs 1 lakh (excluding freight and value-added tax ) and consumers will have to pay Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 more for the air-conditioned model, though the dealers have still not been given the final pricing.

Regarding finance scheme a Tata Motors spokesperson told, “The booking process and other details will be announced on March 23, 2009. In any case, we have said on February 26, 2009, that Tata Motors is making arrangements for the widest possible network to book the car, so that prospective customers can conveniently avail of booking facilities at their locations, across the length and breadth of India. Your information on interest rates etc is purely speculative.” However no reply to an email query was given by the SBI spokesperson.

The sources closely related to the process say that the company will be roll out limited number of cars from assembly lines in Pune (Maharashtra) and Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand), until a makeshift arrangement the main plant in Gujarat starts operations in October. While, the company’ aims to roll out around 100,000 cars in the first 12 months.

HDFC Standard Life in tie-up with Manipal introduced certificate program

HDFC Standard Life a private sector insurer in collaboration with Manipal Education has started a three-month certificate program in Insurance and Management.

HDFC Standard Life released a statement which stated the program has been started with an aim to search for the talent, provide them training and groom talent from across the country to ready pool of insurance-trained sales professionals for the company.

It also stated the program has been designed to cater those individuals (MBAs, experienced and fresh graduates) who want to take up insurance as their career.

HDFC Bank launched a unique scholarship scheme for school children

HDFC Bank leading private bank in India has launched a scheme “HDFC Bank Meritus scholarship”. The scheme is first of its kind related to education program. The aim of the scheme is to cover students of class 4 to 9 across the country and to shortlist the best 5000 students for an educational scholarships amounting to Rs 1.5 crore per year using various academic and non- curricular criteria. Bank has launched this program in alliance with Horlicks.

The HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarship programme is a motivating program, which look for rewarding all-round excellence among students and help add to their overall development. The awardees from all over the country would receive a scholarship ranging from Rs.2, 500 to Rs.10 Lakh.

Publicizing this first of its kind scholarship program, Group Head, HDFC Bank Rahul Bhagat, notified, “This initiative emphasizes the values our Bank stands for. It is a small contribution we are making towards the nation by facilitating young India in its quest for excellence. We are confident we’ll play the role of mentors to these bright children for years to come, and help them create an India that is better, more educated, and, more prosperous.”

Parents have to fill in the registration form available in respective schools to get their wards registered in the scheme. Otherwise, one can also register online by visiting the bank website www.hdfcbank.com/meritus. The last date is February 22, 2009 for submitting the registration form. One can see all the details of the program on the bank website.

To be eligible for the scholarship, registered students have to undertake four rounds of tests - two telephonic and two written, over a period of 16 weeks. To certain the full involvement of the parents in the overall progress of their child, the first two participation rounds will be conducted via telephone through an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) system. Parents can help their children while taking the IVR test and help them get to the final rounds and in the final round the student has to give a written test. The questions prepared will be largely picked from the existing curriculum so that this program helps them in preparing for their school exams too.

Bank will select the final 5000 awardees on the bases of the final round scores, extra-curricular achievements and academics. To make the selection of scholarship awardees completely fair, an independent panel of qualified judges will select the scholarship awardees.

HDFC Bank launched a unique scholarship scheme for school children

HDFC Bank leading private bank in India has launched a scheme “HDFC Bank Meritus scholarship”. The scheme is first of its kind related to education program. The aim of the scheme is to cover students of class 4 to 9 across the country and to shortlist the best 5000 students for an educational scholarships amounting to Rs 1.5 crore per year using various academic and non- curricular criteria. Bank has launched this program in alliance with Horlicks.

The HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarship programme is a motivating program, which look for rewarding all-round excellence among students and help add to their overall development. The awardees from all over the country would receive a scholarship ranging from Rs.2, 500 to Rs.10 Lakh.

Publicizing this first of its kind scholarship program, Group Head, HDFC Bank Rahul Bhagat, notified, “This initiative emphasizes the values our Bank stands for. It is a small contribution we are making towards the nation by facilitating young India in its quest for excellence. We are confident we’ll play the role of mentors to these bright children for years to come, and help them create an India that is better, more educated, and, more prosperous.”

Parents have to fill in the registration form available in respective schools to get their wards registered in the scheme. Otherwise, one can also register online by visiting the bank website www.hdfcbank.com/meritus. The last date is February 22, 2009 for submitting the registration form. One can see all the details of the program on the bank website.

To be eligible for the scholarship, registered students have to undertake four rounds of tests - two telephonic and two written, over a period of 16 weeks. To certain the full involvement of the parents in the overall progress of their child, the first two participation rounds will be conducted via telephone through an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) system. Parents can help their children while taking the IVR test and help them get to the final rounds and in the final round the student has to give a written test. The questions prepared will be largely picked from the existing curriculum so that this program helps them in preparing for their school exams too.

Bank will select the final 5000 awardees on the bases of the final round scores, extra-curricular achievements and academics. To make the selection of scholarship awardees completely fair, an independent panel of qualified judges will select the scholarship awardees.

HDFC bank from India the biggest gainer among top 500 financial brands

Indian banks have positioned itself amongst the world’s top 500 financial brands amidst the tight financial crisis. Around 19 Indian banks have positioned themselves especially at the time when global financial brands staggered due to tight financial crisis. In terms of brand value the top 500 banks lost around $218.1 billion (about Rs10.8 trillion) which means a 32 percent drop over the past year, while their market capitalization slumped by 51 percent to $3.9 trillion.

In comparison to the previous year's list around 209 banks have been out positioned as they became victim of the recession in U.S., Europe and Japan. From India HDFC Bank had turned out to be the biggest gainer. According to the Economic Times HDFC bank brand value rose by $243 million from 2007 to $611 million in 2008, and it positioned to 151 in the league table in 2008 from 236 in 2007. "Emerging market brands have significantly outperformed world brands in 2008. Many of the best known developed world banks have died in 2008. Some are walking dead awaiting a silver bullet before they finally go. Governments hold the gun," said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance. Axis Bank has positioned itself at the 267 position while Kotak Mahindra Bank occupied 278 positions. However, State Bank of India (SBI) has been ranked 69 in the latest survey; it has come down from 60 a year earlier, with a brand value of $1.44 billion, down from $2.852 billion. SBI slipped down because its market capitalization fell to $9.83 billion from $12 billion.

Besides them 13 new public sector banks from have made entry including Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Power Finance Corporation, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Syndicate Bank. The list also includes the three associate banks of SBI viz. State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur. While in the previous year, only six Indian banks could make in Brand Finance's list.

The rankings were provided by the Brand Finance along with The Banker magazine. The rankings were used through a discounted cash flow (DCF) technique to discount estimated future royalties, at an appropriate discount rate, to arrive at a net present value (NPV) of the trademark and associated intellectual property: the brand value.