Now, Bank on Facebook for your Financial Transactions

Banks, brokers lure customers by offering some basic services on social media site

Banks and stock broking firms are beginning to carry out business on Facebook, an important step as they try to build deeper customer relationships through social media platforms. With nearly 45 million users in India and growing rapidly, Facebook's popularity is making banks test the waters with a few basic services to discover how comfortable customers are carrying out transactions on the social networking site. ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, is one of the early movers. Its application lets customers check the balance in accounts, request statements and cheque books, or even upgrade debit cards right from their Facebook home page. "Social media is not a fringe channel and has become an important tool to interact with consumers," said Sujit Ganguly, a general manager at the bank. "We will continue to focus our energies on social media to ensure that we can take full advantage of the interactivity of this medium," he added. Banks and financial services companies are only just putting to use the interactive potential of a platform such as Facebook. So far, their presence has been largely static, restricted to advertising and providing information about products and services. Users, too, are bound to have security and privacy concerns, but experts are of the view that security fears have been addressed. "Those checks are in place," said Ashish Raina, principal research analyst at technology advisory Gartner. "The banking community is careful. Having said that, hackers are always building new ways to hack." HDFC Securities wants to integrate a stock-trading portal on Facebook with widgets that give real-time information feed. It has asked capital market regulator Sebi for permission to launch such a service. "We are taking the 'information leading to transaction' approach," said Jyoteesh Kumar, head of online business at HDFC Securities. Strict Guidelines for Brokerages 

Broking agencies have to comply with strict guidelines when it comes to trying anything on digital media. 
Every advertisement published by a company must be approved by the exchanges, and the companies should keep a tab on their employees and brokers to monitor their communication online. Broking agencies also cannot put out any news not known to the media without seeking prior approval. Axis Bank is promoting its platinum credit cards on Facebook by integrating a movie ticket-booking transaction engine. This was part of a larger effort to offer services that would help attract more attention to the official Axis Bank Facebook page that was launched around the same time. 
"Allowing transactions was a leap of faith we took while observing trends on the medium, and was strategically correct for Axis Bank," said Manisha Lath Gupta, chief marketing officer of the bank. 
Some others are just now experimenting with social media and toying with the idea of doing something more than just being present on it. Financial services company Edelweiss, which does some branding with games, plans to introduce more such initiatives on Facebook. Risks notwithstanding, social media, including Facebook, will be an important platform for those looking to build better relationships with consumers. "The momentum will be fast and huge," Gartner's Raina said.

As ONGC Share Sale Flops, Govt Shuts Selloff Counter

CENTRE 'BUSY' WITH BUDGET, SO NO TIME FOR DIVESTMENT Disinvestment secretary says proceeds from sale satisfactory Bruised by the messy auction of ONGC's shares, the government has put on hold all forms of stake sales for the time being, although officials put up a brave front and said divestment will bounce back with big-ticket deals next fiscal.  The auction of ONGC shares on Thursday nearly collapsed as there were virtually no takers for the offer for a long time and the weak response was magnified by a glitch in the system. But state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), being run by an acting chairman for over nine months, intervened and bailed out the floundering share auction with wholesale purchases.  The government's stake sale plan, with a target of . 40,000 crore this fiscal, was expected to accelerate after ONGC's auction with more such sales. While the auction was in progress, the Cabinet also allowed cash-rich public sector units to buy back their own shares, giving the government another route to sell equity in companies such as BHEL and Oil India.  But after the setback in ONGC's auction, further sale of equity is under a cloud, at least in the current fiscal. An official in the finance ministry said the government would be preoccupied with budget preparations. "There is hardly any time to embark on share sale through any means, including buyback or selling strategic stake of one company to another," said the official, who did not want to be identified. The government has so far raised about . 14,000 crore from stake sales, including . 1,145 crore from selling shares in Power Finance Corporation. Another . 100-120 crore is expected from the initial public offering of the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) this month.  • Strapped PSU Banks Stay Away PSU banks shunned the ONGC issue due to a liquidity crunch, reports Arun Kumar Govt, Bankers Trade Charges; Sebi to Probe  The government is pointing fingers at the bankers to the ONGC issue for their inability to bring in top global funds while bankers say the government did not heed their recommendation to price the issue at a discount, reports Our Bureau from Mumbai. Sebi has formed an internal committee to look into the matter. Several Options to Sell PSU Stakes: Khan  The plan to sell ONGC's shares was put off last November, when bankers expected the government to raise . 9,000 crore. While it has mopped up a much higher amount now, the poor response from private institutions is widely seen as a setback.  Disinvestment Secretary Haleem Khan told ET he was satisfied with the auction as it had fetched the government Rs 12,776 crore, and it didn't really matter who participated in the auction.  "For me, it is not important who is bringing (in) money. What is important is at what price money is flowing in. We could not have received this type of money in this type of market through any other process," he said, but refusedto spell out the future course of action in disinvestments. Khan said the government had several options to sell stake — follow-on offer, auction, buyback and selling stake to another state-run firm. "Disinvestment is part of the economic reforms programme. The process to be followed will be chosen depending on market conditions," Khan said. The government received bids for 42.04 crore shares of ONGC at an average price of . 303.67 against the floor price of . 290. Initially, there were bids for 54 crore shares at an average price of . 307.3 but many bids were cancelled, official data showed. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government would study the auction process before selling stakes in other companies.