HDFC Bank has revised the average quarterly balance (AQB) requirements of various deposit accounts. In case of regular savings account, the minimum AQB to be maintained will be Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for urban and rural branches, respectively. For kid’s advantage accounts and senior citizen accounts, this figure stands at Rs 5,000 across branches. These changes will come into effect from April 1, 2010, for its existing accountholders. Earlier, the bank had revised rates for its new customers as well.
The stock markets have been volatile over the last few days. They are in a sideways movement and trying to find the bottom after a fall of 20 percent a week ago. The market sentiments are not very positive at the moment and the recent developments are expected to dampen them further. Globally, governments and central banks are trying to cut rates and announce packages to improve business sentiments. These are some of the major developments in the markets last few month: A) Global On the global front, another large US bank went into a financial crisis. The US government took quick measures to avoid the spread negative sentiments in the markets. The US government announced a bail-out package and agreed to shoulder the losses on the bank's risky assets. China announced a large cut in interest rates and reserve ratio to boost the investor sentiments in the markets. Recently, the World Bank announced China's growth rate next year will come down to 7.5 percent. The European ...