Banking

Axis Bank, the country's third-largest private sector bank, is looking to scale up its retail operations by cashing in on the demand in smaller cities. Jairam Shridharan, Senior Vice-President and Head of Consumer Lending and Payments said, "The bank aims at increasing the share of retail loans to 30% of total loans from the current 21% in the next three years".

Realty major DLF has said IDFC made the first tranche payment of Rs2bn, as part of acquiring the realty major’s group firm Galaxy Mercantile Ltd. DLF Home has received “the first tranche of infusion of capital from IDFC as part of a process for IDFC to acquire 100% stake in joint venture company”, according to a regulatory filing.

Global rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) today affirmed investment grade with 'stable' outlook to 10 Indian banks. The banks which are part of the list include Axis Bank, Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and Indian Bank. Besides, other banks which have been provided investment grade are State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Syndicate Bank and Union Bank of India.

State-run banks led by State Bank of India plan to install 40,000 automated teller machines, or ATMs, across the country to widen their reach in what will be the biggest such exercise by local lenders. This time, all the government-owned banks will join hands to install what are known as white-label ATMs, which are not owned by any single bank and where the entire operation is outsourced.