Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic

Latin American Perspectives http://lap. sagepub. com/ Tropical Blues : Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic Amalia L. Cabezas Latin American Perspectives 2008 35: 21 DOI: 10. 1177/0094582X08315765 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lap. sagepub. com/content/35/3/21 Published by: http://www. sagepublications. com On behalf of: Latin American Perspectives, Inc. Additional services and information for Latin American Perspectives can be found at: Email Alerts: http://lap. sagepub. com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://lap. sagepub. om/subscriptions Reprints: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsReprints. nav Permissions: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsPermissions. nav Citations: http://lap. sagepub. com/content/35/3/21. refs. html Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Tropical Blues Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic by Amalia L. Cabezas Tourism development is the backbone of many Carib bean economies, and its advocates argue that it contributes to sustainable development, the alleviation of poverty, and integration into the globalized economy.Scholars and activists, in contrast, point to tourism-related ecological deterioration, profit leakage, distorted cultural patterns, rising land values, and prostitution. They suggest that tourism perpetuates existing disparities, fiscal problems, and social tensions. Examination of tourism development in the Dominican Republic indicates that it deskills and devalues Dominican workers, marginalizing them from tourist development and sexualizing their labor.The majority of people are relegated, at best, to positions of servitude in low-paid jobs in the formal sector, unemployment, or unstable activities in the informal sector that include the commoditization of sexuality and affective relations. Keywords: Tourism, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Capitalism, Social exclusion In A Small Place, the Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid elaborates on the inequities of tourism (1988: 18–19): â€Å"Every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. But some natives—most natives in the world—cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. In international tourism, only some people are able to travel and experience a respite from the crushing banality of their lives; others, too poor to go anywhere, are relegated to servicing the needs of foreign travelers. Travel and tourism are among the most important economic activities of the global economy not just for the transnational monopolies that control them but also for those who dream of traveling and perhaps being able to turn someone else’s commonplace reality into the source of their own pleasure. This is the reality of the tropical blues. Tourism development is the backbone of many Caribbean economies.For the small island nations, tourism today represents what sugar wa s a century ago: a monocrop controlled by foreigners and a few elites that services the structures of accumulation for global capitalism. 1 Can tourism change the economic context of small nation-states in the Caribbean by creating possibilities for the population to improve its standard of living? Tourism promoters, policy makers, experts, and development officials certainly think so. They Amalia L. Cabezas teaches at the University of California, Riverside, and is a coordinating editor of Latin American Perspectives.She thanks the Centro de Promocion y Solidaridad Humana (a nongovernmental organization working in Sosua, Puerto Plata, and the surrounding communities) and the Movimiento de Mujeres Unidas for research assistance. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 160, Vol. 35 No. 3, May 2008 21-36 DOI: 10. 1177/0094582X08315765  © 2008 Latin American Perspectives 21 Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 22 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES hav e historically made enthusiastic claims about the positive impact of tourism on host societies.From fostering world peace to preserving biodiversity and indigenous cultures, tourism has been considered a panacea for societies’ ills (Castellanos de Selig, 1981). More recently, tourism has been seen not only as generating foreign exchange and employment but also as contributing to sustainable development, the alleviation of poverty, and integration into the globalized economy. Governments and multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and United Nations development agencies promote tourism as a viable mechanism for economic and social development.It is easy to understand why so much hope is riding on tourism. Tourism is a vital component of the spread of global capitalism. It accounts for one-third of the global trade in services and is expanding at twice the growth rate of world output (El Beltagui, 2001). Tourist arrivals, which stood at 25 million in 1950, are projected to reach 1. 6 billion by 2020 (WTO, 1999). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC, 2005), the travel and tourism industry accounts for US$4. 4 trillion of economic activity worldwide. In the Caribbean region, tourism development is of paramount importance as an indispensable source of foreign exchange (ILO, 2001). Judged by the International Labor Organization as the most tourism-oriented region in the world, the Caribbean is a region where a fifth of the gross domestic product is produced for tourists, directly or indirectly, by one out of every seven workers (ILO, 2001: 119). Scholars and activists working in the field of tourism are much more critical of tourism than policy makers and politicians.In the past three decades, assessments of tourism’s socioeconomic impact have included discussions of ecological deterioration, profit leakage, social displacement, distorted cultural patter ns, rising land values, drugs, and prostitution (Harrison, 1992; Crick, 1996; Pattullo, 1996). Tourism has also been linked to the creation of demand for foreign-made goods, consumerism, the commodification of culture, trafficking in women and children, internal migration, and the disruption and corruption of traditional values and behaviors (see, e. g. McElroy, 2004; Mowforth and Munt, 1998; Pattullo, 1996). Furthermore, scholars postulate that tourism perpetuates existing disparities, fiscal problems, and social tensions (Britton, 1996; Greenwood, 1989). Given such incongruities in opinions and assessments, I seek to examine the framework within which tourism development takes place and to explore why tourism has failed to raise the standard of living and create better life chances for people in the Caribbean region. The concern here is with the political economy of tourism development in the Dominican Republic.In this article I argue that the history of economic, political, and s ocial subjugation within the global capitalist system determines the institutional framework for the current tourism trade. I offer the interpretation that the international division of labor in tourism deskills and devalues Dominican workers, marginalizing them from the process of tourism development and sexualizing their labor. I am concerned with the impact of these processes on the most vulnerable elements of the population. This case study is based on fieldwork undertaken in the Dominican Republic.Beginning in 1997, participant observation was conducted on the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 23 northeast coast of the country in Puerto Plata and the neighboring beach resort developments of Playa Dorada and Sosua. Puerto Plata, a historic city with a population of over 60,000, was targeted for development during the boom in tourism growth in the 1970s. It is the oldest and one of the m ost developed tourism areas of the country, and it continues to grow (ASONAHORES, 2004).Its port attracts cruise lines, and it has an abundance of luxury resorts located east of the city in an area known as Playa Dorada. Sosua, a few kilometers up the coast, is a small beachside community settled by European Jews brought into the country by the former dictator Rafael L. Trujillo to â€Å"whiten the nation† (Symanski and Burley, 1973). It has many businesses owned by expatriates and continues to attract European travelers, many from Germany. The north coast area has a large transient population of internal migrants who come to work in the tourism industry, its informal trade, and the free-trade zone.My research was assisted by two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Puerto Plata and Sosua that are concerned with community health. Taperecorded interviews were conducted in 1997 at a community clinic with women who identified themselves as sex workers, many of whom were affil iated with the Movimento de Mujeres Unidas (Movement of United Women—MODEMU), an NGO that advocates for the labor and human rights of women in the sex industry. Further research for this project was carried out in 2004, 2005, and 2007, including work in the capital city of Santo Domingo and in the nearby tourist beach resort of Boca Chica.Data collection involved interviews with hotel workers, sex workers, community activists, members of MODEMU, people involved in the informal economy, local businessmen, and tourists. STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES AND THE CAPITALIST GLOBAL SYSTEM Tourism exists within a political-economic framework characterized by monopoly capital—a system of global capital that has evolved over the past 500 years and is in a new stage of accumulation characterized by the transnationalization of state formation, production, and consumption (Robinson, 2004; 2007).It is important to keep the colonial patterns of capitalist accumulation in mind when examining tourism development, since global inequities lie at the heart of the tourism project. The capitalist world system has continually expanded through access to cheap labor, land, resources, and markets. These processes are clearly evident in the commercial and organizational systems of the hospitality and travel industries. Transnational tourism reflects the asymmetrical distribution of power and economic resources between former colonies and their colonizers (Fanon, 1963).As Britton (1982: 355) declares, â€Å"The more a Third World country has been dominated by foreign capital in the past, the greater likelihood there is of the prerequisites for establishing a local tourist industry being present. It is metropolitan tourism capital that is the single most important element in determining the organization and characteristics of tourism in underdeveloped countries. † Time and resources have been important in the development of tourism, but so has economic power. While tourism is a global industry, the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. om at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 24 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES majority of the receipts accrue to Europe and the United States (ILO, 2001; WTO, 2002). Indeed, the new forms of global capitalist domination, as manifested in the tourism and travel market, demonstrate that Dominicans face an â€Å"empire of global capital† (Robinson, 2007: 19). The Caribbean is thus relegated to a â€Å"pleasure periphery† within the international division of labor, a â€Å"host† region that accommodates leisure travelers and the demands of transnational corporations (Turner and Ash, 1975).The tourism industry in the global North emerged with subsidized state-led development. Growth in infrastructure and technology benefited from statesponsored research and development. In the 1950s the U. S. Senate authorized more than US$12 million to support the development of improved transport aircraft, and U. S. policy e ncouraged the development of civil aeronautics and air commerce both within and outside of the United States (Truong, 1990). The use of U. S. aviation equipment, U. S. eronautical procedures, and the English language as the world standard in aviation guaranteed the United States dominance in civil aeronautics globally. In Western Europe, the concept of â€Å"participatory enterprise,† by which airlines are owned in part or wholly by governments, helped to cover the losses incurred by the operation of unprofitable but strategically important routes (Truong, 1990). Both the United States and Western Europe subsidized and cultivated the global travel infrastructure and established the regulations and norms of the travel industry, facilitating their control and domination.Travel and tourism enterprises experienced rapid growth and expansion as they sought to capture the disposable earnings of wage workers in the booming economies of Western Europe and the United States during the late 1950s and 1960s. Their growth was enhanced by new patterns of production and consumption in the global North and the creation of social legislation ensuring holiday time off. It was advantageous for the United States to further its political and commercial interests in the Caribbean by promoting the growth of tourism as a form of economic development.As Truong (1990: 104) explains, The advocated tactical and strategic flexibility in the execution of civil aviation policy has been translated into the use of multilateral aid channels to cover U. S. interests and overt intervention in international aviation and tourism. The promotion of tourism itself mirrored the awareness of the relation between air transport and economic development. This intervention has two main advantages for the United States. From a commercial perspective, such intervention contributes to the strengthening of the U.S. position as a manufacturer and exporter of aircraft and navigation equipment. From a pol itical perspective, it helps to consolidate the direction of social and economic development in the third world, which benefits U. S. interests under a screen of peaceful understanding. In due course, the growth of the tourism industry became a â€Å"peaceful† method of attaining long-lasting political power and financial control in the markets and politics of the South (Lanfant, Allcock, and Bruner, 1995).The framework for the development of the travel and tourist industry impedes poor countries from generating foreign exchange, increasing employment, or promoting the participation of the most marginal segments of the community (Britton, 1996). It enables transnational corporations to use their superior technology, resources, and commercial power to control Third World Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 25 tourist destinations.Tourism’s tendency to perpetuate patterns of econo mic dependency and vulnerability for developing countries is evident in the island nations of the Caribbean, where small local suppliers have limited access to tourist-generating markets monopolized by powerful wholesalers and retailers (Ashley et al. , 2006). Tour operators—a transnational industry based in Western Europe and the United States—can project an image of a country through worldwide marketing campaigns that ensure a steady flow of visitors. Because of economies of scale, they can control tourist packages and demote or promote particular destinations (Britton, 1996).They unite suppliers and consumers in the pursuit of profits and pleasure; with direct contact with travel consumers through vertically integrated travel agencies, they can control particular destinations and dominate the flow of visitors. They can pressure hotels to operate in certain ways and negotiate low prices, especially in beach resorts. They favor a standardized product, such as the all- inclusive deal, a comprehensively controlled tourist experience in which the familiarity of the brand and the security of the travel experience are more important than local differentiation. The all-inclusive tourist package allows tour operators and travel agencies to combine all of the components of a destination’s attractions—recreation, meals, food, lodging, and transportation—into a single product paid for at the point of origin. This limits the participation of local producers and confines the profits to the global North. As the Dominican Republic has adopted the all-inclusive model, the earnings per tourist have decreased: per-room spending has declined from a high of US$318 in 1982 to the current low of US$154 (UNDP, 2005: 73).The all-inclusive package is only one component of the revolution in information technology that has integrated travel and tourism into a circuit that combines air transport, sea cruises, tours, and car rentals into a worldwide mon opoly. Further vertical integration of airlines, car rental, and tour operators has been facilitated by the Internet. 4 Electronic commerce in tourism services, which represents a new possibility for online holiday booking for tourism providers, works to the disadvantage of developing countries, which have only limited access to the Internet.Other practices include the mergers of transnational corporate giants in the areas of technology, travel, hospitality, and media. HOTELS, CRUISE LINES, AND DISASTERS In an increasingly globalized industry, the trend in the hospitality industry is from independently owned and owner-operated hotels to the multinational hotel chains that have become the industry standard. In the Dominican Republic, hotels with more than 400 rooms have the highest and least volatile occupancy rates (UNDP, 2005: 75; Secretaria de Estado de Turismo, 2007).In the accommodations industry, an impressive amount of consolidation took place in the 1980s, resulting in hotel brands under fewer and larger corporate umbrellas. Major multinational hotel chains have been involved in important acquisitions and mergers (ILO, 2001: 38). Cendant, the largest hotel chain in the world, operates 6,000 hotels with 500,000 rooms. Some major hotel Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 26 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES corporations, such as Best Western, operate in almost 100 countries (ILO, 2001: 120). Since the mid-1990s, multinational hotel companies entering foreign markets have used consolidation strategies to strengthen their position vis-a-vis local markets. Furthermore, brand-name hotels promote themselves by advertising their own products—facilities, amenities, services, and prices—more than any particular country. Because so many corporations strive for a standardized and homogeneous product, one facility is the same as any other, regardless of geographic destination. The disdain for difference and diver sity is part of what some scholars have identified as the â€Å"McDisneyization† of post-tourism (Ritzer and Liska, 1997).The promotion of industry control through monopolistic practices is also noticeable in the increasing number of strategic alliances aimed at supplying diversified products and services that strengthen the hotel corporations’ market position. 6 The ILO (2001) indicates that major multinational corporations such as Hyatt and Starwood are partnering with Microsoft’s Expedia in the acquisition of new information and communication technology. In the distribution of products and cross-marketing between food service providers and hotels, Marriott and Hilton are now linked with Pizza Hut.Strategic alliances between multinationals also include distribution and cross-promotion between financial services, credit cards, and hotels. In this area, American Express is now working with Accor Hotels and Visa and American Express are partnered with Bass Hotels and Resorts. The consolidation of hotels and transportation means that some hotels, such as Cendant, have now partnered with more than 20 airlines. Cendant’s holdings also include vehicle rental companies, online ticket sales enterprises such as Orbitz and CheapTickets, and major resort condominiums and real estate holdings.In media and entertainment, the copromotion of hotels and films has combined the resources of industry giants such as Marriott and Bass Hotels and Resorts with ESPN, Discovery, and E-Entertainment (ILO, 2001: 3). The Disney Corporation, with its Caribbean Disney Cruises that target all age-groups, has been able to create all-encompassing corporate control by combining cruises and airfare with its own private depopulated Caribbean islands. 6 Disney cruises feature Disney merchandise, entertainment, and films. Through these methods, cruises operate as the ultimate product-placement scheme.This represents a significant impact on the region on a number of lev els. Not only is the Caribbean the most important geographic market for the cruise industry (ILO, 2001) but that industry is one of the most egregious violators of labor and environmental standards (Wood, 2000). For example, the majority of its workers come from Southeast and South Asia and are paid wages as low as US$1. 55 an hour (Wood, 2000). As a deterritorialized industry, cruise lines are able to evade labor standards such as minimum wage and restrictions on overtime that are established by national laws.The interaction with actually populated islands is limited to a few hours of shopping for souvenirs. Consequently, the overall market for cruise tourism in the Caribbean translates into lower earnings for the region, since its participation in the profits is restricted to, at best, a few hours of shopping in a port community. The increasing horizontal integration of the travel and tourism industry is manifested in the computerized reservation systems, with high access charges, that have rapidly become the industry norm. Tourism services are increasingly Downloaded from lap. sagepub. om at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 27 being purchased on the Internet via three main mechanisms: a computer reservations system known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), third-party web sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity, and hotel- and airline-owned-and-operated direct booking. GDS is used primarily by tour operators and travel agents in destination countries to book not only travel and accommodations but other tourism products as well. The cost of GDS fees and technology is prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises.Orbitz, one of the two biggest online travel agents, is owned by the five biggest U. S. airlines—American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and United. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings, the world’s largest travel agent reservations system, and GDS (PSTT, 2004). At an impr essive rate, consolidation and strategic alliances by multinational corporations have limited the opportunities for small and medium-sized suppliers in the tourism industry, thereby restricting access to profits to those aligned with transnational capital.With few alternatives, largely because of their lack of technological development and capital, small nation-states cannot eliminate these powerful intermediaries and deal with tourists directly. A number of other structural issues are associated with the vulnerability of Caribbean destinations and the impediments to their benefiting from tourism development. One alarming concern is the â€Å"leakage† of foreign exchange earnings in the amount of imported consumer goods required to sustain the tourism industry.As John Urry (1996: 215) explains, â€Å"Much tourist investment in the developing world has in fact been undertaken by large-scale companies based in North American or Western Europe, and the bulk of such tourist expe nditure is retained by the transnational companies involved; only 22–25 percent of the retail price remains in the host country. † A major problem is the high import content of construction material and equipment and the many consumable goods required to cater to the needs of tourists.It is difficult to bring local suppliers into the supply chain, since the goods required by tourists may not be produced locally, and, when they are, tourists tend to reject them (Ashley et al. , 2006). Another source of leakage is the repatriation of income and profits to metropolitan locations through generous tax incentives created to stimulate investment (Urry, 1996: 215). Finally, excessive reliance on one industry renders tourist destinations extremely vulnerable to external markets. Anything that weakens demand for a destination undermines the national economy.Circumstances such as the September 11 attacks and the weather can generate a considerable downturn in the tourism economy. With the acceleration of global climate change, the Dominican Republic, for example, is increasingly susceptible to more powerful and frequent hurricanes. Stronger tropical storms and the rise in sea levels could cause the disappearance and erosion of beaches? the main engine of the economy and a source of livelihood for the nation. Hurricane Noel in 2007 devastated parts of the islands, killing hundreds and generating an epidemic of leptospirosis. The minister of tourism, Felix Jimenez, reported that news of the epidemic had tainted the national image and that the images of Hurricane Noel’s destruction televised in Europe had led tour operators to cancel charter flights (Hoy, November 25, 2007). However, the majority of areas and people directly suffering from the catastrophic effects of the hurricane were those already living in extreme poverty, certainly not in tourist zones. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 28 LATIN AMERICA N PERSPECTIVESThe government appears more preoccupied with its image than with creating an infrastructure that reduces damage. One family of five, for example, has been living in a temporary shelter since Hurricane Jeanne destroyed their home in September 2004 (Listin Diario, November 20, 2007). INTERNATIONAL TOURISM IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC While Barbados, Cuba, and Jamaica developed their tourism infrastructure in the early twentieth century to accommodate North American travelers, the Dominican Republic did not become a tourist destination until close to 70 years later.The nation’s negative image during the era of dictator Rafael Trujillo reflected fear of a violent political system. 8 The political instability that followed the U. S. assassination of Trujillo in 1961 and the subsequent invasion and occupation by 23,000 North American troops did not support an alluring image of a tropical paradise. The physical security of guests, an essential component in the packaging o f tourist destinations, could not be ensured.In 1966 Joaquin Balaguer, an old crony of Trujillo and an anticommunist ally of the United States, came to power through corruption and force. Balaguer’s regime, in concert with multilateral agencies, sought to capture the U. S. tourist market that had been temporarily displaced since the Cuban Revolution. Through World Bank loans and development packages, the productive structure of the country was transformed and its economic strategy redirected toward absorbing foreign investment in tourism. Tax concessions that amounted to more than 10 years of tax exemptions for investment in tourism development were established by Law 153-71. 10 International tourism in the Dominican Republic grew slowly at the end of the 1960s as a way of generating development without making large investments in manufacturing and technology. Since tourism relies on the packaging of natural assets, it was considered to support economic growth by using existi ng resources, such as sandy beaches, a warm and sunny climate, â€Å"friendly people,† and local arts and music (Tavares, 1993).In 1968 the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo established the outline of a strategy for the tourism sector (Castellanos de Selig, 1981). In 1971 the Central Bank established a department for the promotion of tourism development to be financed by the World Bank. Through loans and with the technical expertise of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, in the 1970s the Dominican Republic began to move away from state-led industrialization and sugar toward tourism and free-trade zones (Atkins and Wilson, 1998).The acceleration of its incorporation into the global economy was facilitated by structural adjustment programs that, for example, devalued the Dominican peso in 1987 to help the country compete for foreign investment. Tourism rapidly displaced sugar as the main source of earnings, and by 1997 it was generating more than half of the countryâ €™s total foreign exchange (Jimenez, 1999). The government created generous tax concessions to stimulate foreign investment with the goals of producing employment, paying off the foreign debt, and generating revenue.In the long run, however, this approach failed to create sustainable development or to enhance the well-being of the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 29 majority of the population. National elites have benefited, as the increasing polarization of income indicates, but the majority of the population has been relegated to positions of servility in a competitive labor market that provides predominantly low-paid, seasonal, and unstable jobs.EXCLUSION AND MARGINALIZATION OF THE LABOR FORCE The exploitation of labor and natural resources in beachfront resorts is particularly acute on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, where the environment is showing signs of degradation due to the extensive development that has taken place in the area. Over 95 percent of the resorts operate under the all-inclusive enclave model (Departamento de Estadisticas, interview, ASONAHORES, October 2005), and over 60 percent also use time-share allocation (ASONAHORES, 2004). Enclave resorts have a reputation for being â€Å"gilded ghettoes†? egregated spaces that exclude Dominicans while providing luxury accommodations to foreigners. The resorts are small cities and, as such, are developed with all kinds of facilities (UNDP, 2005: 68). They represent foreign, exclusive spaces that keep tourists from seeing the local poverty that might make them uncomfortable and keep them from wanting to stay in the country. The latest development scheme, the 30,000-acre mega-resort Cap Cana, features four luxury hotels including the Ritz Carlton, apartments, villas, five golf courses, condominiums, boutiques, restaurants, a convention center, and a marina.This resort complex will tar get the high-end market instead of the mass tourism market that the country has sought for decades. These tourism compounds provide electricity, sewerage, paved roads, and running water for their pleasure- and leisure-oriented guests, but basic infrastructure development in the country remains chaotic, lacking planning, development, and environmental control. Shantytowns often lack plumbing, electricity, and paved roads. This neglect represents a hidden cost to the host society and a urther appropriation of social and environmental resources by foreign capital. 11 The United Nations Human Development Report for the Dominican Republic (UNDP, 2005) indicates that the tourism labor force is made up primarily of young women, over half of them younger than 39 and with fewer than eight years of schooling (UNDP, 2005: 77). The salary for tourism workers is below the national average (UNDP, 2005: 78), with women earning approximately 68 percent of a man’s salary in the industry.Women are nearly absent from supervisory and management positions. This reflects an industry norm, for, as the ILO (2001: 86) points out, women globally have little access to the higher levels of corporate management in the hotel, catering, and tourism sector. Globally, women also experience income disparities vis-a-vis men at all levels of hotel, catering, and tourism employment. They generally occupy the lower echelons in the tourism labor market, with few career opportunities and low levels of remuneration.While Dominican women experience greater vulnerability and gender discrimination in the workforce, Dominican men are displaced and excluded from employment and meaningful participation. Camilo, an informal tourist guide in his late twenties, has been working for the past 10 years in activities Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 30 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES connected with tourism. He and other guides idle outside of the Playa Dorada re sort complex hoping to befriend the rare tourist or, better, tourist group that ventures outside the all-inclusive beachfront compound on foot.The modus operandi of these well-dressed young men is to approach foreigners with multiple offers—for example, to dine with them at a typical Dominican restaurant, to show them around town, and to teach them how to dance merengue. The day that I met Camilo, he was angry to hear that resort’s management had been making disparaging comments about Dominicans during orientation meetings for their guests. He explained: I want to fight against the lack of information or disinformation about Dominicans and the Dominican Republic.I would like to have a crew secretly filming in the hotel, and I want to send that to the national media. The agents of these corporations are talking bad about us, about assaults, assassinations, and such things. We are walking guides; we provide a service. My friends and I speak different languages. Why is it that all the hotels and the travel agencies and the stores in the resorts have to use foreigners to work there? Why, if I speak German, I can defend myself in Italian, I am excellent in English? I can sell anything in German.It is something that I do not understand. If I go to Germany, they will not let me work. I used to sell horseback riding tours; now all those are owned by Germans. They are displacing us in our own country. Camilo’s statements address the massive displacement of Dominican workers. With the majority of resorts managed by expatriates, many of whom do not appreciate the cultural, social, and economic realities of the countries in which they work, locals are frustrated by the lack of respect accorded them by foreigners and the severe competition for the tourist market.Camilo had started out with a small business that took tourists on horseback riding trips and had been forced out of the market when the resorts begun offering these excursions to their guests. Such displacement has led many citizens to feel like foreigners in their native land. Most resorts keep the local populations out with security personnel and by requiring guests to wear wrist-bands during their stay. Treated like outsiders, Dominicans are turned away at the front gate unless they come as workers.This exclusion positions Dominican labor as a marginalized and deterritorialized workforce, performing roles and functions similar to those they would carry out as foreign, undocumented workers in Europe or North America. The common practice of the resort enclaves in the Caribbean region of recruiting top management and skilled labor from Western Europe and the United States means that Dominicans seldom work in positions of management or as chefs in the resorts, and, as Camilo mentions, they are even excluded from retail operations.These exclusionary practices marginalize the local population—not just the working class but also nationally trained executives and mid-l evel managers. Dominican men are relegated to service labor such as work in accommodations, reception, security, and grounds-keeping or, as Camilo does, scrape out a living in unstable and contingent activities in the informal sector. Gender also creates labor hierarchies within hotels. Dominican men are excluded from management, but gender stereotypes also give them access to positions with more opportunities for gratuities, such as bartender and luggageDownloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 31 handler. Dominican women, in contrast, are employed in gender-designated positions of domesticity such as housekeeping. There are few opportunities for Dominicans to participate directly in the tourism economy. To escape this predicament, many cultivate relationships of companionship, friendship, and romance with tourists and other foreigners as a way to access the global economy, travel to the global No rth, and improve their lives.Many relationships between Dominican women and foreign men mingle intimate, affective relations with economic activity, but others emphasize payment for sexual services. While some studies indicate that Caribbean formal tourism workers have sex with tourists in the resorts (Cabezas, 2004; CEPROSH, 1997; Crick, 2001), many more reports reveal that it is people hustling in the informal economy who provide tourists with sexual and affective exchanges (Herold et al. 2001; Padilla, 2007; Gregory, 2007).In the Dominican Republic the young men are popularly known as sanky panky, heterosexually identified men who provide romance, companionship, and sex to men and women. These new sexual formations have also appeared in other touristdependent islands such as Jamaica (rent-a-dreads), Barbados (beach boys) and Cuba (pingueros and jineteros) (Hodge, 2002). Although many men are able to exploit foreigners’ fantasies of racial eroticism to enhance their life ch ances and masculinity, women who use intimate relationships with foreigners to support their households bear a heavy burden of stigma and riminalization (Cabezas, 2004; 2005). It is primarily working-class women of color who bear the burden of state-inflicted violence, harassment, extortion, and rape (Cabezas, 1999; 2005). Miriam, a 23-year-old mother of two, had one child when she met the father of her youngest, a vacationing African-American police officer from New York in his late thirties. John visits Miriam often and sends approximately US$60 a month to support his eight-month-old daughter. However, Miriam must continue to seek out relationships with foreign and local men to supplement his support.Her oldest daughter has liver disease, and the doctor visits and medication are costly. She tells me fearlessly, â€Å"From luck and death no one can escape. † Johanna, a 20-year-old single mother of two, cannot find any type of work that would allow her to support her mother a nd two children. She was fired from her job as a waitress when she got pregnant and began selling sex to foreign men who live or vacation in Boca Chica. Her aim is to meet a tourist who will provide her with travel to a foreign country. Any place is better than here,† she tells me. When I asked her if she was frightened by reports of sex trafficking or other forms of exploitation that could potentially take place in a country where she knows no one, she looked down and replied intensely, â€Å"I have to assume that risk, because here I am going to either go crazy or die of hunger. † HIV/AIDS Discussions of travel associated with work or leisure have increasingly pointed to the risks involved in mobility and HIV/AIDS. 2 Paul Farmer (1992) has argued that the HIV virus was introduced to Haiti by gay North American men vacationing on the island, and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre indicates Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 32 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES that this is true for the Caribbean as a whole (Camara, 2001) and that the countries that are the most economically dependent on tourism in the region have the highest prevalence of HIV cases (Camara, 2001; Padilla, 2007: 171).Padilla (2007) maintains that tourism in the Dominican Republic â€Å"continues to function as an important source of new infections, exerting an ongoing influence on the scope and impact of AIDS in specific locales. † This assertion is confirmed by the UNDP report (2005: 85), which indicates that the areas with the highest incidence of HIV in the country are also those with the highest rates of tourism. However, there has been little prevention education targeting tourism-sector workers.Padilla argues that this is because of the fear of fostering a negative image that could potentially â€Å"contradict the escapism, exoticism, and consequence-free environment that compose at least part of the tourism package offered to foreigners† (2007: 172). The women informants for my study, who worked primarily with tourists, were adamant in attesting to their use of condoms and resistance to offers of unsafe sex for higher compensation. Mari explained, â€Å"This is my body; it is the only thing I can count on to support my children.I’m not going to risk everything for a few extra dollars. They can’t pay me enough. † Another woman exclaimed, â€Å"If I get sick, are they going to take care of me? Are they going to take care of my children? † These statements are representative of what many women told me; however, a few caveats are in order. First, the women I interviewed were associated with MODEMU and CEPROSH, two organizations that provide peer-to-peer safer-sex education. Also, Puerto Plata has a governmentmandated policy of condom use in sex establishments (Haddock, 2007).These women were educated and aware of the dangers of unprotected sex. Secondly, most of the women id entified with the term â€Å"sex worker,† meaning that many of their relations with foreigners were direct sex-for-money exchanges. Women who engage in less rigidly structured and more ambiguous relationships, in which the conditions of the exchange deemphasize economic factors, may take more risks to prove that they are not â€Å"from the street. † Research from the Caribbean also confounds easy assumptions about sexual identity, sexual practice, and HIV/AIDS.Padilla’s (2007) research in the Dominican Republic and that of Fosado (2004) and Hodge (2002) from Cuba testify to the difficulty of categorizing the mode of HIV transmission in these countries as â€Å"heterosexual,† given the growth of same-sex male sex work with tourists. The political economy of tourism serves as the context for straightidentified men to engage in same-sex relations with foreign men to support wives, girlfriends, and families. The notion of sex workers as vectors of disease als o needs to be reexamined. My research with 30 women infected with HIV/AIDS, who worked in sex stablishments serving a predominantly Dominican clientele in Santo Domingo, indicates that all were infected by their husbands or regular boyfriends, with whom they did not use safer-sex techniques. Thus far, all the women that I have interviewed claim to use condoms for protection with their clients and to let their guard down with regular partners. Third, many of the young single workers are internal migrants to tourist areas and are more likely to engage in riskier practices and have a less stable lifestyle (UNDP, 2005). There are few educational and prevention programs to target this population.These are two areas in which more research is needed. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 33 CONCLUSION Few viable alternatives exist to the current structure of travel, leisure, and tourism, which consign s people in the South to poorly remunerated labor. The Dominican Republic, along with other Caribbean nations, attracts foreign investment by offering a low-cost labor force, tax exemptions, and other incentives, but tourism denies the majority of its working people â€Å"decent work. 13 The squeezing of labor power and natural resources has left the country with a massive tourism infrastructure, with more than 60,000 hotel rooms, and over 3 million pleasure visitors a year (Secretaria de Estado de Turismo, 2004–2007) in an ecology of disaster. These figures continue to grow every year without concern for the quality of life of Dominicans. The majority of people are relegated, at best, to positions of servitude in low-paid jobs in the formal sector, underemployment, or unstable activities in the informal sector that include the commoditization of sexuality and affective relations.Dominicans dream of being leisure travelers, holding decent jobs, and securing a better future f or their children, but the transnational tourism industry cannot provide them decent wages and higher standards of living. Various scholars have documented the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Caribbean people in acting on the tourism infrastructure (Cabezas, 2004; Fosado, 2004; Padilla, 2007), but the opportunities and potential for significant democratization are modest or absent.Tourism may provide the opportunity for people from the global North to re-create themselves, but people from the South have access to this opportunity only through sexual exchanges that place their lives at risk. Reciprocal leisure travel is what every native needs to dispel the tropical blues. NOTES 1. Tourism and travel are considered export-oriented services. 2. Increasingly tourism is one of the world’s largest generators of jobs. The WTTC (2005) calculates that the sector accounted for 10 percent of total employment in 1997 worldwide and is expected to generate an estimated 328 million jo bs by 2010. . The UNDP (2005) is rather critical of the all-inclusive model of development in the Dominican Republic. It contends that this model offers a homogeneous product marked by the stereotypical image based on sun, sand, and sea, a tourism product with facilities that face away from local populations and one characterized by constant competition and lack of state regulation. While I support this spatially concentrated form of development and the general segregation of tourists from local populations, my point here is to express concern for the lack of human capital development of the population.Further, tourism development generally promotes a â€Å"slash, burn, and move on† approach to the environment. Leisure travel in the Dominican Republic follows the pattern of exploitation of natural resources and cheap labor prevalent in neocolonial regimes whereby transnational finance capital and local elites benefit from these structures and the local people are left to suff er the consequences. 4. According to one estimate, 33–50 percent of Internet use is based on tourism (ILO, 2001). 5. The trend in consolidation is evident in ILO’s data (2001). It maintains that in 1999 the 10 biggest companies controlled 2. 4 million rooms but by 2000 9 giants controlled 2. 98 million hotel rooms. 6. In the Caribbean, of the eight major cruise lines operating, â€Å"six own their own private islands which they include among their ports of call† (Wood, 2000: 361). 7. Leptospirosis is caused by a bacterium, Leptospira, that can be transmitted through exposure to water, food, or soil containing the urine of infected animals. The epidemic had killed 27 people by November 20, 2007. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 34 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES 8. Trujillo was dictator from 1930 to 1961.His regime was characterized by extreme violence and repression, the massacre of 12,000 Haitians in 1938, and the ac cumulation of immense personal wealth. He created state structures and placed his cronies in offices within them to perpetuate his power (Betances and Spalding, 1995). 9. Various multilateral agencies created specialized units for the evaluation, approval, and funding of the projects of member countries. In the 1960s the Inter-American Development Bank, the U. S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank, for example, directed their lending in Latin America toward tourism development (Monge, 1973).The Organization of American States also promoted financial resources for tourism development. All these efforts were enhanced in the Dominican Republic by Law 153, which granted tax concessions to tourism investors and corporations. Thus foreign entities took the lead in creating highly favorable conditions for foreign investment. 10. The legislation that governs these practices established an incentive system to stimulate development in the tourism sector by providing an i nitial 10-year 100 percent tax exemption on earnings, imports, and construction. 11.Environmental costs are borne entirely by the local population, since the enforcement of environmental regulations is nearly nonexistent (see UNDP, 2005: 86–87; Gregory, 2007). 12. The United Nations (2004) epidemiological report indicates that the Dominican Republic had an estimated adult rate of HIV infection of 1. 7 percent and Puerto Plata one of 8 percent. Recent reports suggest that the infection rate has been reduced to 0. 8 percent (Listin Diario, December 1, 2007), but the northeast coast continues to be one of the areas with the highest rates. 3. The term â€Å"decent work† is used by the ILO (1999: 4) to capture the notion of quality employment that can provide basic security to workers. REFERENCES Ashley, Caroline, Harold Goodwin, Douglas McNab, Mareba Scott, and Luis Chaves 2006 â€Å"Making tourism count for the local economy in the Caribbean: guidelines for good practice . † http://www. propoortourism. org. uk/caribbean/caribbean-whole. pdf. ASONAHORES (Asociacion Nacional de Hoteles y Restaurantes, Inc. ) 2004 Estadisticas seleccionadas del sector turismo ano 2004. Santo Domingo. Atkins, G.Pope and Larman Wilson 1998 The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Betances, Emelio and Hobart A. Spalding Jr. 1995 â€Å"Introduction: The Dominican Republic: social change and political stagnation. † Latin American Perspectives 22 (3): 3–19. Britton, Stephen 1982 â€Å"The political economy of tourism in the Third World. † Annals of Tourism Research 9: 331–358. 1996 â€Å"Tourism, dependency, and development: a mode of analysis,† in Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Stella Leivadi, and Andrew Yiannakis (eds. , The Sociology of Tourism: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. New York: Routledge. Cabezas, Amalia Lucia 1999 â€Å"Women’s work is never done: sex tourism in Sosua, the Dominican Republic,† in Kamala Kempadoo (ed. ), Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield. 2004 â€Å"Between love and money: sex, tourism, and citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. † Signs 29: 987–1015. 2005 â€Å"Accidental crossings: sex, tourism and citizenship,† in Marguerite Waller and Sylvia Marcos (eds. ), Dialogue and Difference: Feminisms Challenge Globalization.New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Camara, Bilali 2001 20 Years of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Caribbean. Port of Spain: CAREC-SPSTI. Castellanos de Selig, Grethel 1981 â€Å"Bases para una politica nacional de desarrollo turistico y estategia para este desarrollo. † Paper prepared for the Second National Tourism Convention, Puerto Plata. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 35 CEPROSH (Centro de Estudios Sociales y Demograficos) 1997 â€Å"Encuesta sobre conocimientos, creencias, actitudes y practices acerca del SIDA/ETS en rabajadoras sexuales y hombres involucrados en la industria del sexo en las localidades de Puerto Plata, Sosua y Monte Llano. † MS, COVICOSIDA, Puerto Plata. Crick, Anne P. 2000 â€Å"Personalised service in the New Economy: implications for small island tourism. † Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 26 (1): 1–20. Crick, Malcolm 1996 â€Å"Representations of international tourism in the social sciences: sun, sex, sights, savings, and servility,† in Yiorgos Apostolopoulos, Stella Leivadi, and Andrew Yiannakis (eds. ), The Sociology of Tourism: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations.New York: Routledge. El Beltagui, Mamdouh 2001 The Imposed Globalization of the Tourism Phenomenon in WTO Strategic Group: Tourism in a Globalized Society. Madrid: World Tourism Organization. Fanon, Frantz 1963 The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Farmer, Paul 1992 AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fosado, Gisela 2004 â€Å"The exchange of sex for money in contemporary Cuba: masculinity, ambiguity, and love. † Ph. D. diss. , University of Michigan. Greenwood, Davyd J. 989 â€Å"Culture by the pound: an anthropological perspective on tourism as cultural commodification,† in Valene Smith (ed. ), Host and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Gregory, Steven 2007 The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic. Berkeley: University of California Press. Haddock, Sarah 2007 â€Å"Policy empowers: condom use among sex workers in the Dominican Republic. † Population Action International 2 (1). http://www. populationaction. org/Publications/ Research_Commentaries/Policy_Empowers/Policy_Empowers. df. Harrison, David 1992 Tourism and the Less Developed Countri es. New York: Wiley. Herold, Edward, Rafael Garcia, and Tony DeMoya 2001 â€Å"Female tourists and beach boys: romance or sex tourism? † Annals of Tourism Research 28: 978–997. Hodge, Derrick 2002 â€Å"Colonization of the Cuban body: the growth of male sex work in Havana. † NACLA 34 (5): 23. ILO (International Labour Organisation) 1999 â€Å"Decent Work: Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 87th Session, Geneva. † http://www. ilo. org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc87/rep-i. tm 2001 Human Resources Development, Employment, and Globalization in the Hotel, Catering, and Tourism Sector. Geneva. Jimenez, Felucho 1999 El turismo en la economia dominicana. Santo Domingo: Secretaria de Estado de Turismo. Kincaid, Jamaica 1988 A Small Place. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux. Lanfant, Marie-Francoise, John B. Allcock, and Edward M. Bruner 1995 International Tourism: Identity and Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. McElroy, Jerome L. 2004 â€Å"Global perspectives of Caribbean tourism,† in David Timothy Duval (ed. ), Tourism in the Caribbean: Trends, Development, Prospects.London: Routledge. Monge, Aquiles O. Farias 1973 â€Å"Fuente de financiamiento nacionales y extrajeras. † Paper presented at the Convencio ? n Nacional de Turismo Repu blica Dominicana, Puerto Plata, March 31–April 3. ? Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 36 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES Mowforth, Martin and Ian Munt 1998 Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World. London: Routledge. Padilla, Mark 2007 Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pattullo, Polly 1996 Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean. London: Cassell. PSTT (Private Sector Trade Team) 2004 â€Å"Anticompetitive practices in the global tourism industry: implications for Barbados. † http://tradeteam. bb/cms/pstt/files/issues/Anticompetitive_Practices_Issue_Paper. pdf. Ritzer, George and Allan Liska 1997 â€Å"‘McDisneyization’ and ‘post-tourism’: complementary perspectives on contemporary tourism,† in Chris Rojeck and John Urry (eds. ), Tourism Cultures: Transformations of Travel and Theory.London: Routledge. Robinson, William I. 2004 A Theory of Global Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2007 â€Å"Beyond the theory of imperialism: global capitalism and the transnational state. † Societies Without Borders 2: 5–26. Secretaria de Estado de Turismo 2004–2007 Establecimientos de alojamiento turistico en R. D. Santo Domingo. 2007 Llegada mensual de pasajeros, via aerea, por nacionalidad. Santo Domingo. Symanski, Richard and Nancy Burley 1973 â€Å"The Jewish colony of Sosua. † Annals of the Association of American Geographers 63: 366–378. Tavares, Luis L.

Constraints in Popularising Debit Card

A SUMMER PROJECT REPORT ON Constraints in Popularization of Bank of Baroda Debit Card By PRAVIN MANDORA [pic] STEVENS BUSINESS SCHOOL A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of MBA Program Submitted to Bank of Baroda Acknowledgement The completion of any task depends upon the co-operation, coordination and consolidated efforts of several resources of knowledge, energy, and time and above all the proper guidance of the experienced bankers. Therefore I approached this matter of Acknowledgement through these lines trying my best to give full credit where it deserves.I wish to express my gratitude to our institute, which has provided me the opportunity to fulfil the most cherished desire to reach my goal. I am thankful to all those who generously helped me to compile this project with their knowledge and expertise. Firstly I owe a great debt to, STEVENS BUSINESS SCHOOL for obliging the project, thus giving me chance to broaden my horizon and providing me all necessa ry resources in college to assist me in the project. Also I owe a great debt to Mr. B. N. Menon, Sr.Manager (IT) of Bank of Baroda who has been nominated as mentor for my project and also thankful to all staffs of BOB as well as Head Office of Bank of Baroda for providing me the necessary guidelines regarding the project, for helping me to track the first hand information and supporting me in the carrying out the project successfully. As well as reposing a belief in me, this was essential for the completion of this project. I express my sincere thanks to Mr. PRIYA KUMAR, Senior Manager (HRM) at Regional Office Bank of Baroda Ahmedabad for giving me the opportunity to choose this topic and the project.I would also like to thank all the persons for their contribution for shaping up of this project, which helped me directly or indirectly in completing this project. 2. Preface The project is prepared during the vocational training under taken on partial fulfillment of the course of â₠¬Å"Master of Business Administration† Hence, this report is designed with the objective to gain practical knowledge. According to old saying there is a huge difference between â€Å"To say and to do†. To take theorical knowledge is important but it becomes more valuable when we apply it in the practice.So, there is a huge difference between theory & practical. For filling this requirement training in Bank of Baroda is very practical exposure for me. This training provides golden opportunity for every student, for better understanding in a working environment in the organization. Hence, this report is designed with the objective to gain practical knowledge. Table of Context |Sr no. |Topic |Pg No. |1 |Indian Banking Industry |5 | |2 |Opportunities in the Indian Banking Sector   |17 | |3 |History of BOB |19 | |4 |Personal Banking Services |27 | |5 |Debit Card |30 | |6 |Bank Of Baroda Debit Card |34 | |7 |SWOT Analysis |38 | |8 |Findings |41 | |9 |Research and develop ment |59 | |10 |Learning |61 | |11 |Experience at Bank of Baroda |62 | |12 |Bibliography |63 | [pic] Indian banking industry Introduction to Indian Banking Industry The banking system remains, as always, the most dominant segment of the financial sector. Indian banks continue to build on their strengths under the regulator's watchful eye and hence, have emerged stronger.In the annual international ranking conducted by UK-based Brand Finance Plc, 18 Indian banks have been included in the Brand Finance ® Global Banking 500. In fact, State Bank of India (SBI), which is the first Indian bank to be ranked among the Top 50 banks in the world, has improved its position from 36th to 34th, as per the Brand Finance study released on February 1, 2011. The brand value of SBI has enhanced to US$ 1. 12 billion. ICICI Bank, the only other Indian bank in the top 100 club has improved its position with a brand value of US$ 2. 5 billion. Indian banks contributed 1. 7 per cent to the total global brand value at US$ 14. 74 billion and grew by 19 per cent in 2011, according to the study. Nationalized banks, as a group, accounted for 51. per cent of the aggregate deposits, while State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates accounted for 22. 5 per cent, according to Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) ‘Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks: September 2010'. The share of New private sector banks, Old private sector banks, Foreign banks and Regional Rural banks in aggregate deposits was 13. 5 per cent, 4. 5 per cent, 5. 2 per cent and 3. 1 per cent respectively. With respect to gross bank credit also, nationalized banks hold the highest share of 50. 9 per cent in the total bank credit, with SBI and its associates at 23. 1 per cent and New Private sector banks at 13. 7 per cent.Foreign banks, Old private sector banks and Regional Rural banks held relatively lower shares in the total bank credit with 5. 2 per cent, 4. 5 per cent and 2. 5 per cent respectively. The report also found that scheduled commercial bank offices (with deposits of US$ 2. 25 or more) accounted for 66. 2 per cent of the bank offices, 96. 6 per cent in terms of aggregate deposits and 93. 8 per cent in total bank credit. Bank loans registered a growth of 21. 38 per cent in 2010-11, while deposit growth stood at 15. 84 per cent, according to data released by RBI. Analysts and bankers said a growth rate of 18 per cent in deposits and 20 per cent in credit should be sustainable for banks in 2011-12. India's foreign exchange reserves stood at US$ 308. billion as on April 8, 2011, according to the data in the weekly statistical supplement released by RBI. Indians who live and work abroad have remitted US$ 55 billion in 2010 as compared to US$ 49. 6 billion in 2009 and have topped the world list in sending money back home, according to World Bank's Migration and Remittances Fact book 2011. With online money transfer services provided by many banks becoming popu lar, remitting money from any corner of the world is no more a problem. History of Indian Banking Industry Banking in India originated in the first decade of 18th century with The General Bank of India coming into existence in 1786. This was followed by Bank of Hindustan. Both these banks are now defunct.The oldest bank in existence in India is the State Bank of India being established as â€Å"The Bank of Bengal† in Calcutta in June 1806. A couple of decades later, foreign banks like Credit Lyonnais started their Calcutta operations in the 1850s. At that point of time, Calcutta was the most active trading port, mainly due to the trade of the British Empire, and due to which banking activity took roots there and prospered. The first fully Indian owned bank was the Allahabad Bank, which was established in 1865. By the 1900s, the market expanded with the establishment of banks such as Punjab National Bank, in 1895 in Lahore and Bank of India, in 1906, in Mumbai – both of which were founded under private ownership.The Reserve Bank of India formally took on the responsibility of regulating the Indian banking sector from 1935. After India's independence in 1947, the Reserve Bank was nationalized and given broader powers. Nationalization By the 1960s, the Indian banking industry has become an important tool to facilitate the development of the Indian economy. At the same time, it has emerged as a large employer, and a debate has ensued about the possibility to nationalize the banking industry. Indira Gandhi, the-then Prime Minister of India expressed the intention of the GOI in the annual conference of the All India Congress Meeting in a paper entitled â€Å"Stray thoughts on Bank Nationalisation. † The paper was received with positive enthusiasm.Thereafter, her move was swift and sudden, and the GOI issued an ordinance and nationalised the 14 largest commercial banks with effect from the midnight of July 19, 1969. Jayaprakash Narayan, a nationa l leader of India, described the step as a â€Å"masterstroke of political sagacity. † Within two weeks of the issue of the ordinance, the Parliament passed the Banking Companies (Acquition and Transfer of Undertaking) Bill, and it received the presidential approval on 9th August, 1969. A second dose of nationalization of 6 more commercial banks followed in 1980. The stated reason for the nationalization was to give the government more control of credit delivery. With the second dose of nationalization, the GOI controlled around 91% of the banking business of India.After this, until the 1990s, the nationalized banks grew at a pace of around 4%, closer to the average growth rate of the Indian economy. Liberalization In the early 1990s the then Narasimha Rao government embarked on a policy of liberalization and gave licenses to a small number of private banks, which came to be known as New Generation tech-savvy banks, which included banks such as UTI Bank (now re-named as Axis Bank) (the first of such new generation banks to be set up), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. This move, along with the rapid growth in the economy of India, kick started the banking sector in India, which has seen rapid growth with strong contribution from all the three sectors of banks, namely, government banks, private banks and foreign banks.The next stage for the Indian banking has been setup with the proposed relaxation in the norms for Foreign Direct Investment, where all Foreign Investors in banks may be given voting rights which could exceed the present cap of 10%,at present it has gone up to 49% with some restrictions. The new policy shook the Banking sector in India completely. Bankers, till this time, were used to the 4-6-4 method (Borrow at 4%; Lend at 6%; Go home at 4%) of functioning. The new wave ushered in a modern outlook and tech-savvy methods of working for traditional banks. All this led to the retail boom in India. People not just demanded more from their banks but al so received more. Current Situation Currently (2007), banking in India is generally fairly mature in terms of supply, product range and reach-even though reach in rural India still remains a challenge for the private sector and foreign banks.In terms of quality of assets and capital adequacy, Indian banks are considered to have clean, strong and transparent balance sheets relative to other banks in comparable economies in its region. The Reserve Bank of India is an autonomous body, with minimal pressure from the government. The stated policy of the Bank on the Indian Rupee is to manage volatility but without any fixed exchange rate-and this has mostly been true. With the growth in the Indian economy expected to be strong for quite some time-especially in its services sector-the demand for banking services, especially retail banking, mortgages and investment services are expected to be strong. One may also expect M, takeovers, and asset sales.In March 2006, the Reserve Bank of India allowed Warburg Pincus to increase its stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank (a private sector bank) to 10%. This is the first time an investor has been allowed to hold more than 5% in a private sector bank since the RBI announced norms in 2005 that any stake exceeding 5% in the private sector banks would need to be vetted by them. Currently, India has 88 scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) – 28 public sector banks (that is with the Government of India holding a stake), 29 private banks (these do not have government stake; they may be publicly listed and traded on stock exchanges) and 31 foreign banks. They have a combined network of over 53,000 branches and 17,000 ATMs.According to a report by ICRA Limited, a rating agency, the public sector banks hold over 75 percent of total assets of the banking industry, with the private and foreign banks holding 18. 2% and 6. 5% respectively. Growth of Indian banking industry The growth in the Indian Banking Industry has been more qualitative than quantitative and it is expected to remain the same in the coming years. Based on the projections made in the â€Å"India Vision 2020† prepared by the Planning Commission and the Draft 10th Plan, the report forecasts that the pace of expansion in the balance-sheets of banks is likely to decelerate. | | The total assets of all scheduled commercial banks by end-March 2010 are estimated at  Rs. 40, 90,000 crores. That will comprise about 65 per cent of GDP at current market prices as compared to 67 per cent in 2002-03.Bank assets are expected to grow at an annual composite rate of 13. 4 per cent during the rest of the decade as against the growth rate of 16. 7 per cent that existed between 1994-95 and 2002-03. It is expected that there will be large additions to the capital base and reserves on the liability side. The Indian Banking Industry can be categorized into non-scheduled banks and scheduled banks. Scheduled banks constitute of commercial banks and co-operative banks. T here are about 67,000 branches of Scheduled banks spread across India. As far as the present scenario is concerned the Banking Industry in India is going through a transitional phase.The Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which are the base of the Banking sector in India account for more than 78 per cent of the total banking industry assets. Unfortunately they are burdened with excessive Non Performing assets (NPAs), massive manpower and lack of modern technology. On the other hand the Private Sector Banks are making tremendous progress. They are leaders in Internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, ATMs. As far as foreign banks are concerned they are likely to succeed in the Indian Banking Industry. Types of Banks The operations of all the banks in India are controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. All the Indian banks are governed by the RBI or Reserve Bank of India. This governing body took over the reasonability of formally regulating the Indian banks in 1935.The Reserve Bank of India was announced as the official Central Banking Authority for the smooth supervision of the banking industry in India. Banks in India are classified into 2 broad categories namely, Public sector banks and Private sector banks. The banking scenario in India has already gained momentum, with the domestic and international banks gathering pace. All the banks in India are following the ‘cost', determined by revenue minus profit model. This means that all the resources should be used efficiently to improve the productivity and ensure a win-win situation. To survive in the long run, it is essential to focus on cost saving. Previously, banks focused on the ‘revenue' model which is equal to cost plus profit.Post the banking reforms, banks shifted their approach to the ‘profit' model, which meant that banks aimed at higher profit maximization. The  History of banking  in India dates back to the early half of the 18th century. 3 Presidency Banks that were established in the country namely the Bank of Hindustan, Bank of Madras and Bank of Bombay can also be referred to as some of the oldest banking institutions in the country. The State Bank of India that was earlier known as the Bank of Bengal is also one of the oldest in the genre. To know about the types of banks in India, it is necessary that we first comprehend the banking system so as to be able to distinguish about its various types.All  types of Banks in India  are regulated and the activities monitored by a standard bank called the Reserve Bank of India that stands at the apex of the banking structure. It is also called the Central Bank, as major banking decisions are taken at this level. The other types of banks in India are placed below this bank in the hierarchy. The major types of banks in India are as follows: [pic] Public sector banks in India All government owned banks fall in this variety. Besides the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and its associate banks and about 20 nationalized banks, all comprises of the public sector banks. Many of the regional rural banks that are funded by the government banks can also be clubbed in this genre.Banks such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank are known as Public sector banks. Public sector banks are controlled and managed by the Government of India. Public sector banks have been serving the nation for over centuries and are well known for their affordable and quality services. The banking sector in India is mostly dominated by the Public sector banks. The Public sector banks in India alone account for about 75 percent of the total advances in the Indian banking industry. Public sector banks have shown remarkable growth over the last five four decades. Allahabad Bank was the first fully owned Indian bank. It was founded in the year 1865. Private sector banks in IndiaA new wave in the banking industry came about with the private sector banks in India. With policies o n liberalization being generously taken up, these private banks were established in the country that also contributed heavily towards the growth of the economy and also offering numerous services to its customers. Some of the most popular banks in this genre are: Axis Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, Catholic Syrian Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI Commercial and International Bank. The Foreign Banks in India like HSBC, Citibank, and Standard Chartered bank etc can also be clubbed here. Private Banks are banks like HDFC bank, ICICI Bank, UTI bank and IDBI bank.The concept of private banking was introduced about 15 years ago. These are the banks that do not have any government stakes. Private Banks have gained quite a strong foothold in the Indian banking industry over the last few years especially because of optimum use of technology. The Private Banks are accountable for a share of 18. 2 percent of the Indian banking industry. IndusInd Bank was the first private bank in India. Currently the bank is among the fastest growing Bank Private Banks in the country. IDBI which is ranked as the tenth largest global development bank is counted as one of the finest financial institutions in the subcontinent. List of Public sector and Private sector banks in India Public Sector Banks |Private Sector Banks | |Bank of Baroda |Bank of Rajasthan | |Allahabad Bank |Catholic Syrian Bank | |Central Bank of India |Bank of Punjab | |State Bank of Patiala |Dhanlakshmi Bank | |Andhra Bank |HDFC Bank | |Canara Bank |Karur Vysya Bank | |State Bank of Hyderabad |ING Vysya Bank | |Oriental Bank of Commerce |Laxmi Vilas Bank | |Dena Bank |Karnataka Bank | |State Bank of Mysore |South Indian Bank | |State Bank of Indore |United Western Bank | |UCO Bank |UTI Bank | |Vijaya Bank |Centurion Bank | |Syndicate Bank |City Union Bank | |State Bank of India |Development Credit Bank | |Bank of India |Federal Bank |Corporation Bank |ICICI Bank | |Ind ian Bank |IndusInd Bank | |Union Bank of India |Jammu & Kashmir Bank | |Punjab National Bank- | | |State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur | | |State Bank of Travancore | | |Bank of Baroda | | Comparison between Private and Public Sector BanksThe Private sector banks introduced the concept of online banking in India. This was mostly because the private banks were technologically well equipped. Online banking is extremely common today since you can sit anywhere and go ahead with your banking transactions. You do not have to personally visit your bank. The Private sector banks were using state of the art technology and fully computerized systems since the time they entered the Indian market whereas the Public sector banks were not. However despite the technological challenges the public sector banks in India are still the preferred destinations for many as they are considered as safer options for money deposit.Cooperative banks in India With the aim to specifically cater to the rural pop ulation, the cooperative banks in India were set up through the country. Issues like agricultural credit and the likes are taken care of by these banks. Opportunities in the Indian Banking Sector In the five decades since independence, the Indian banking system has evolved through four distinct phases. The major reform took place in the fourth phase, with the recommendations of Narasimham Committee (1991). The important initiatives that were introduced were the provisioning and capital adequacy, deregulation of interest rates and easing of norms to enter the banking sector.Further, the merger and acquisition in the sector will add a new growth dimension, as it would create 3 -4 global sized banks. The presence of these banks will help the country to attract foreign direct investments, which in turn will drive the future growth in the Indian Banking sector. The report titled ‘Opportunities in the Indian Banking Sector’ provides a crisp and comprehensive analysis of the c urrent status and overall growth prospects of the Indian banking industry. The report provides an insight into the use of Information Technology in the sector and the impact of the Union Budget 2010-11 on the growth of the sector. The research presents a detailed PEST analysis of the industry which is substantiated with key findings.The report aims to investigate the opportunities that have been created in the industry in the areas of pension fund, rural banking and e banking. Moreover, the research also explains the impact of the Basel 3 norms on the functioning of the Indian Banks. ‘Opportunities in the Indian Banking Sector’ is an outcome of comprehensive research and analysis of the Indian Banking sector. The team has also mapped the competitive landscape of the sector and tried to shed light on the operations/strategies of the key players. Thus, the information available in the report is expected to enable the target audience in understanding the contemporary indus try scenario. Key findings in the report include: The Indian banking industry has been able to sustain the global economic crisis much better than other developing countries due to its robust capital structure. The implementation of Basel 3 norms will make it more immune to crisis and will guard the banking industry against market risk, interest rate risk and operational risk. Moreover, the creation of capital buffer will provide a cushion for periods of stress and will not lead to situations of insolvency. †¢ In a major move, undertaken by RBI to elevate financial inclusion in the country, additional branch licenses will be granted to private sector banks and NBFCs. This will further assist to ease the entry norms in the industry and attract new players.Additionally, the setting up of new branches will help in extending banking products and services to remote areas of the country. †¢ A paradigm shift in the banking system has been witnessed with the use of information tec hnology for implementation of total banking automation. Various software companies are launching software application packages for banks. For instance, Infosys has rolled out Finnacle which a core banking software, designed to offer solutions for e banking, CRM for requirements of retail, corporate and universal banking and core banking. Moreover, with the introduction of interbank mobile payment service by The National Payment Corporation of India, the retail customers can now avail 24*7 fund transfers.History of Bank of Baroda[pic] [pic] About Bank of Baroda A saga of vision and enterprise It has been a long and eventful journey of almost a century across 25 countries. Starting in 1908 from a small building in Baroda to its new hi-rise and hi-tech Baroda Corporate Centre in Mumbai, is a saga of vision, enterprise, financial prudence and corporate governance. It is a story scripted in corporate wisdom and social pride. It is a story crafted in private capital, princely patronage an d state ownership. It is a story of ordinary bankers and their extraordinary contribution in the ascent of Bank of Baroda to the formidable heights of corporate glory.It is a story that needs to be shared with all those millions of people – customers, stakeholders, employees & the public at large – who in ample measure, have contributed to the making of an institution. Our mission statement To be a top ranking National Bank of International Standards committed to augmenting stake holders' value through concern, care and competence. Our Logo Our new logo is a unique representation of a universal symbol. It comprises dual ‘B’ letterforms that hold the rays of the rising sun. We call this the Baroda Sun. The sun is an excellent representation of what our bank stands for. It is the single most powerful source of light and energy – its far reaching rays dispel darkness to illuminate everything they touch.At Bank of Baroda, we seek to be the source that w ill help all our stakeholders realise their goals. To our customers, we seek to be a one-stop, reliable partner who will help them address different financial needs. To our employees, we offer rewarding careers and to our investors and business partners, maximum return on their investment. The single-colour, compelling vermillion palette has been carefully chosen, for its distinctiveness as it stands for hope and energy. We also recognize that our bank is characterized by diversity. Our network of branches spans geographical and cultural boundaries and rural-urban divides. Our customers come from a wide spectrum of industries and backgrounds.The Baroda Sun is a fitting face for our brand because it is a universal symbol of dynamism and optimism – it is meaningful for our many audiences and easily decoded by all. Our new corporate brand identity is much more than a cosmetic change. It is a signal that we recognize and are prepared for new business paradigms in a globalised wor ld. At the same time, we will always stay in touch with our heritage and enduring relationships on which our bank is founded. By adopting a symbol as simple and powerful as the Baroda Sun, we hope to communicate both. The Heritage It all started with a visionary Maharaja's uncanny foresight into the future of trade and enterprising in his country.On 20th July 1908, under the Companies Act of 1897, and with a paid up capital of Rs 10 Lacs started the legend that has now translated into a strong, trustworthy financial body,  THE BANK OF BARODA. It has been a wisely orchestrated growth, involving corporate wisdom, social pride and the vision of helping others grow, and growing itself in turn. The founder,  Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad, with his insight into the future, saw â€Å"a bank of this nature will prove a beneficial agency for lending, transmission, and deposit of money and will be a powerful factor in the development of art, industries and commerce of the State and adjoinin g territories. † The Ethics Between 1913 and 1917, as many as 87 banks failed in India. Bank of Baroda survived the crisis, mainly due to its honest and prudent leadership.This financial integrity, business prudence, caution and an abiding care and concern for the hard earned savings of hard working people, were to become the central philosophy around which business decisions would be effected. This cardinal philosophy was over years of its existence, to become its biggest asset. It ensured that the Bank survived the Great War years. It ensured survival during the Great Depression. Even while big names were dragged into the Stock Market scam and the Capital Market scam, the Bank of Baroda continued its triumphant march along the best ethical practices. The Heroes No history is complete without mention of its heroes, mostly ordinary people, who turn in extra-ordinary performances and contribute to building an institution.Over the years, there have been thousands of such people. The Bank salutes these â€Å"unknown soldiers† who passionately helped to create the legend of Bank of Baroda. There were also the leaders, both corporate and royal, who provided the vision and guided the Bank through trail blazing years, and departing, left behind footprints on the sands of time. This Roll of Honor will be incomplete without mention of men, of the stature of  Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad, Sampatrao Gaekwad, Ralph Whitenack, Vithaldas Thakersey, Tulsidas Kilachand and NM Chokshi. Bank of Baroda salutes these leaders whose vision helped to create an institution. Offices and branches [pic] [pic]Shower of Awards & Accolades On Bank Of Baroda ? Bank of Baroda receives Skoch Award ? Bank of Baroda bags Bank of the year 2010 (for India) ? Bank of Baroda has bagged three awards from Association of Business Communicators of India in an award function held at Mumbai. ? Bank of Baroda has been conferred upon Best Bank 2010 award by the prestigious financial magazine, Business India in recognition of its consistent performance ? Bank of Baroda has been conferred upon Silver Award by Dainik Bhaskar group (DNA) ? Bank of Baroda has been awarded with prestigious Dalal Street- DSIJ PSU Award. ? CMD Shri M. D. Mallya is seen receiving the Skoch Challenger Award from Dr. C.Rangarajan, Hon’ble Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. ? Association of Business Communicators of India gives awards every year in various categories of Business Communication. Bank of Baroda got the Gold Trophy for the Indian Language Publication, Silver Trophy for the Corporate Website of the Bank, Bronze trophy for Bilingual Internal Magazine and CMD’s message. The Awards were received by Smt. Vindhya Ramesh, Dy. General Manager along with team members in an award function held in Mumbai. ? Shri Nandan Srivastava, General Manager in-charge (Official Language) receiving the   prestigious Millennium National Rajbhasha Shield constituted by Nat ional Hindi Academy Bank of Baroda has been conferred â€Å"Bank of the year† Award at India Leadership Conclave held in Delhi. ? Bank has won award for the leading Public Sector Bank in â€Å"Global Business Development† category at the Dun & Bradstreet Banking Awards 2009, held in Mumbai, on wednesday 18th February 2009. Journey from 1908 to 2009: 1908-1958 ? 1908: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III set up Bank of Baroda (BOB). ? 1910: BOB established its first branch in Ahmadabad. ? 1953: BOB established a branch in Mombasa and another in Kampala. ? 1954: BOB opened a branch in Nairobi. ? 1956: BOB opened a branch in Dar-es-Salaam. ? 1957: BOB established a branch in London. ? 1959: BOB acquired Hind Bank. 1960s-1970 1961: Merger of New Citizen Bank of India with BOB helped it increase its branch network in Maharashtra. ? BOB also opened a branch in Fiji ? 1962: BOB opened a branch in Mauritius. ? 1963: BOB acquired Surat Banking Corporation in Surat, Gujarat. ? 1964: B OB acquired two banks, Umbergaon People’s Bank in southern Gujarat and Tamil Nadu Central Bank in Tamil Nadu state. ? 1964: BOB lost its branch in Narayanjanj (East Pakistan) due to the Indo-Pakistan war. It is unclear when BOB had opened the branch. ? 1965: BOB opened a branch in Guyana. ? 1967: The Tanzanian government nationalized BOB’s three branches there and transferred their operations to the Tanzanian government-owned National Banking Corporation. 1969: The Government of India nationalized 14 top banks, including BOB. BOB incorporated its operations in Uganda as a 51% subsidiary, with the government owning the rest. 2000s ? 2000: BOB established Bank of Baroda (Botswana). ? 2002: BOB acquired Benares State Bank in Benares at the Reserve Bank of India’s request. ? 2002: Bank of Baroda (Uganda) was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). ? 2003: BOB opened an OBU in Mumbai. ? 2004: BOB acquired the failed Gujarat Local Area Bank, and returned to Ta nzania by establishing a subsidiary in Dar-es-Salaam. ? BOB also opened a representative office each in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Guangdong, PRC. 2005: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has approved a joint venture between BOB, Bank of Maharashtra (BOM), and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) to set up a bank in Malaysia. The new bank will reside in Kuala Lumpur, which has a large population of Indians. The initial capital required will be US$78 million; BOB will invest 40%, and the other two banks will invest 30% each. The JV is awaiting approval from the Malaysian Central Bank. Bank has built and commissioned its own State-of-the-Art Global Data Centre (DC) in Mumbai for running its centralized banking solution(CBS) and other applications in 1900+ branches across India and 20 other counties where the Bank is operating. ? BOB also opened a representative office in Thailand. ? 2006: BOB established an Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) in Singapore. 2007: In its centenary year, BOB's total b usiness crossed 2. 09 lakh crores, its branches crossed 1000, and its global customer base 29 million people. ? 2008: BOB opened a branch in Guangzhou, China (02/08/2008). ? 2009: Bank of Baroda registered with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, enabling it to trade as a bank in New Zealand (2009/09/01) Personal Banking Services Bank of Baroda  believes in the strength and integrity of relationships built with its customers like you. With over 102 years of experience in the banking industry and a wide network of over 3412 branches  all over the country, we have always been active in extending financial support and adapting to your changing needs.Bank’s  Deposit Products,  Retail Loans,  Credit Cards  and  Debit Cards  help you with your growing financial needs. With facilities like  Lockers  we ensure that your valuables are safe with us. BOB’s countrywide branches offer convenience and ease in operating one’s account wherever they are. BOBâ₠¬â„¢s 24-hour ATMs enable to withdraw cash, check account balance and request for a new cheque book even after banking hours. Faster technology for better service Baroda Internet Banking / Baroda Mobile Banking, our latest Internet and Mobile banking initiatives enable you to operate your account just as you would in any of our branches. You can through the Internet check your balance, request for cheque books and print account details.Choose from our various products and services, that we sincerely feel will put a smile on your face; an investment we would like to bank on forever. | | | | Deposits Bank of Baroda  offers various deposit plans that you can choose from depending on the term period, nature of deposit and its unique saving and withdrawal features. Apart from competitive interest rates and convenient withdrawal options, BOB’s deposit plans offer other features such as overdraft facility, outstation cheque collections, safe deposit lockers, ATM's etc. Choose from   Fixed,  Current  and  Savings  Deposit plans. Fixed deposits are categorized into deposits with a term period of less than 12 months, more than 12 months and recurring deposits.These deposit plans offer convenient solutions to both working individuals as well as senior citizens. Current and saving deposits are ideal for individuals who wish to take advantage of multiple benefits within the same plan and even be eligible to opt for overdrafts. Deposit Products & Services Fixed Current Saving Gen Next Services Gen- Next Junior Gen- Next Life style Gen- Next Power Gen- Next Suvidha Retail Loans A wide range of solutions for your financial needs Bank of Baroda  offers a wide range of retail loans to meet your diverse needs. Whether the need is for a new house, child's education, purchase of a new car or home appliances, BOB’s unique and need specific loans will enable his/her to convert dreams to realities. Products Home Loan | |Home Improvement Loan | |Loan Again st Future Rent Receivables | |Advance Against Securities | |Baroda Career Development Loan | |Two Wheeler Loan | |Traders Loan | |Baroda Ashray | |Home Loan TO NRIs/PIOs | |Mortgage Loan | |Education Loan | |Auto Loan | |Loan To Doctors | |Personal Loan | | | | | | | | | |Debit Card | |The  Bank of Baroda International Debit Card  is accepted at over  50000 Visa Electron ATMs in India and 1000000 ATMs worldwide. The | |card is also accepted at any 350000 merchant outlets in India and around 29 millions globally.The card enables you to enjoy the | |convenience of cash-less purchasing power without the fear of overdrawing your account | |Key Benefits and Features | |ATM daily cash withdrawal limit Rs: 25,000 (per transaction limit Rs. 15,000) and Point of Sales (POS) daily limit Rs. 50,000. | |Take advantage of the most widely accepted card and be able to withdraw from any ATM displaying the VISA logo, in India and | |abroad. | |At VISA Electron merchant shops, it can also serve as your electronic purse, and money gets debited instantly from your account, | |as you pay. | |The Card allows you to get mini-statements from Bank of Baroda ATMs, or to check the balance in your account, avoiding visits to | |even our nearest branches. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |What's a Debit Card? | |A debit card is issued to an account and card holder uses the card the debit transaction is directly affected to his/her account | |to the extent of balance available. Whereas in credit card there is no need of account but a credit limited is granted up to which| |one can spend. | |How Does a Debit Card Work? | |When you use a debit card, the linked account is checked for the balance availability and the transaction debits (withdraws) the | |amount from the linked account, immediately.You can use a debit card to get cash from  ATM machines  or have it swiped like a | |credit card at shops or restaurants or swipe it through a pay phone to make a call. | |Making a Travel Budget With a Debit Card | |Naturally, you can't rely on your debit card for all your international transactions – imagine haggling with a street vendor, | |getting the price right and then trying to give him/her plastic! Remote hostels and many restaurants in third world countries | |don't accept credit cards (which is how debit cards are viewed in the business world).Thus, you'll need to make budget plans | |before you leave home so that you have traveler's checks and cash  and  some money in your checking account for use on your debit | |card. | |Let's assume you have a budget of $2000 for your trip. Decide how you're comfortable splitting that into the way you'll use it; | |$100 in traveler's checks (although travelers' checks are dead as disco, because carrying them is a pain on several levels — | |we've had banks in other countries refuse to cash them, we've lost them, etc. and so on), $400 in cash and $1500 left in your | |checkin g account, for example — that's $1500 on your debit card. | |If that $2000 represents your entire cash portfolio, consider setting up emergency precautions before you leave home.If someone, | |like Dad, is willing to loan you money, leave deposit slips with him so that if you spend all your money abroad, you can dial for | |dollars (using your debit card) and he can get some money into your account. If your debit card (your checking account) is almost | |empty, ask him to tell the bank to â€Å"memo post† the deposit so that the cash is immediately available and your debit card is | |quickly back in business. | |How to Get a Debit Card | |Chances are you were automatically offered a debit card when you opened your checking account. If you don't have a checking | |account, go open one now.Look for a bank that doesn't charge checking account fees, and ask for a debit card. | |It takes a few days to two weeks to get a debit card after you order it. When the card arrives, sign the back; have photo id with | |your signature handy when you use the card – merchants may want to compare your face and your signatures to protect themselves | |from fraud. | |How to Choose a Debit Card PIN Number | |Your debit card comes with a PIN (personal identification number) which can be changed to a number you can easily remember. | |Memorize it; if you have to write it down, keep that separate from your card.Don't choose an obvious number, like your birthday, | |in order to lessen the chances of someone else being able to guess your PIN number if they come into possession of your card. | | | | | |If You Lose Your Debit Card†¦ | |If your card is lost or stolen, call your bank a sap (Skype's a good, cheap choice for international calls from anywhere you can | |find a computer) before someone else spends your money. Write down your bank's number before you leave home and keep it in a | |couple of places – your journal, your guidebook. Set up an  i nternational snail mail address before you leave home so your bank can| |send you a different card if yours does get lost or stolen. | | | | | | |When to Use Your Debit Card | |Debit cards are handy when making a long distance room reservation or any internet reservation, including plane tickets. You can't| |use a debit card just like a credit card when renting a car – the companies require a major credit card, which offer a certain | |amount of insurance in case you have a fender bender. |About Debit Card Fees and Overseas Transaction Fees | |International ATM machines will charge a fee  when you use your debit card; the amount is determined by the ATM owner. Most fees | |are under $5 — a notice on the ATM machine will tell you what the fee is. More than $2 is too much — look for another ATM | |machine. | |The real fee problem with a debit card comes from your own bank — the card issuer may charge you up to 3 percent for a foreign | |transaction, in cluding an ATM withdrawal. Call your bank long before you go — if you don't like the fee, call around and ask what| |other banks are charging for foreign transactions made with a debit card; be sure to ask what, if any, fees the bank will charge | |for an ATM withdrawal made on foreign soil, even at an â€Å"international bank. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Bank Of Baroda Debit Card | |What is a debit card? | |Debit Card is an electronic purse, which allows the holder to withdraw cash from ATMs and also enables him to purchase goods or | |services from the member establishments. Debit Cards are mostly issued in collaboration either with VISA or MASTER Card. | |What is Bank of Baroda’s Debit Card? | |Bank is issuing globally accepted Debit Card in association with VISA, which will be the easiest way to access customer’s account. |A debit card will allow the customer to purchase goods at VISA Electron merchant establishments and withdraw Cash from any VI SA | |ATM in India and abroad. It is a 24 hours banking facility. | |What is the difference between a Debit Card and a Credit Card? | |The basic difference between a Debit Card and a Credit Card is that the Debit Card gives the customer access to his own money | |whereas the credit card is a form of loan and allows line of credit offered by the Bank. As in case of Debit Card, there will be | |on line debit to the customer’s account, there are no hassle of receiving bills, making payments on due dates, making payment of | |interest on the amount not paid etc. |What is the advantage of a debit card? | |The debit card provides tremendous convenience in payments and helps the customers reduce the amount of cash they need to carry. | |Besides that customer always stays in control of his finances as he can spend only what he has in his account. It also gives an | |unparalleled access to his account, whenever he wants, wherever he goes. | |No Interest / service Charges | |Suits to the Indian psyche of limited expenditure. | |Debit card is not included in the list of Compulsory Income Tax Return Filing. |Usable at POS and hence no carry cash | |Same Card usable at ATMs | |Will customers be entitled to get an additional card in case of joint accounts? | |All the joint account holders, if the operating instructions in the account are ‘either or survivor’, are eligible to get an | |additional card in his/her own name. | |What are the charges for issuing of a Debit Card? | |There are no charges for issuing a debit card. | |What should customer do on receipt of DEBIT CARD? | |Customers are advised to immediately sign on the panel on the back of the Card. However, to prevent any possible misuse, even | |before delivery of Card to customer, it has been made mandatory that Customer should first use the Card at ATM, which requires PIN| |to be entered..Debit Card will be activated for use at POS only after it is used at ATM. | |What is PIN? | |PIN is a FOU R Digits Personal Identification Number, which is issued to the customer in a CLOSED Jacket and is delivered to him | |separately. Customers are requested to ensure that PIN jacket is received by them INTACT and they are also requested to change his| |PIN immediately. Under no circumstance, PIN should be divulged to anyone including to any official from the Bank. | | | |Where will Bank Of Baroda Debit Card be accepted? | |The  Bank of Baroda International Debit Card  is accepted at over 32000 Visa Electron ATMs in India and 1000000 ATMs worldwide.The | |card is also accepted at any 350000 merchant outlets in India and around 29 millions globally. The card enables you to enjoy the | |convenience of cash-less purchasing power without the fear of overdrawing your account. | |What are the facilities available at ATMs? | |At BANK OF BARODA’s ATM network, Customer will be able to withdraw Cash, make a balance enquiry, change his PIN and print a mini | |statement of his account. However, at all other banks ATMs he will be able to withdraw cash and enquire the balance only. | |Whether there are any charges for using CARD at ATMs? | |There will not be any charges for using the Card at Bank of Baroda’s own ATM network.However, if the Card is used at other banks | |ATM, whether in India or abroad, customer is required to pay the charges as per tariff of charges, which will be declared by the | |Bank from time to time. | |And what about charges for using the Card at POS? | |There will not be any charge for using the Card at the POS, either in India or abroad except a nominal service charge is levied if| |the card is used at Petrol Pumps and Indian railways. | |How the amounts withdrawn abroad or purchases made outside India are debited into the account? | |Normally the Cash can be withdrawn and payments for purchases can be made upto the amount of balance available in the account of | |the customer.However, for safety reasons Bank has fixed PER DAY limit of Rs 15000/- for withdrawing the Cash at ATMs and Rs | |25000/- for making purchases at the POS, subject to maximum of balance available in SB account. These limits are also subject to | |using the card MAXIMUM of FOUR times in a day. | |Are any formalities required to be completed by the Bank for international transactions? | |NO, the customer is required to use the Card as per his foreign exchange entitlements only and necessary formalities as required | |under FEMA 1999 are to be complied with by the customer. | | | |What will be the mode of payment in case of a Debit Card? | |The account of the customer will be debited instantly to the extent of purchases made and amount withdrawn from the ATMs. |Therefore, there will not be any monthly outstanding as in case of Credit Cards. | |If customer returns the goods to POS or cancel the transactions, will his account be credited online? | |In case he cancels the transaction immediately, customer’s account will be credited imme diately. However if any customer returns | |the goods later, merchant will make the payment to our Base branch through acquirer. Switch will pass on the credit to customer’s | |account thereafter. | |What is the procedure to be followed in case of loss of Debit Card? | |In case of loss of card, customer will be required to report the loss IMMEDIATELY over phone to our 24 hours Customer Care Toll | |free number 1800 220 400. He will also be required to report the loss to nearest police station and inform the Bank in writing | |along with a copy of information duly acknowledged by the Police. | |When will the customer get replacement card in lieu of lost one? | |Replacement card will be issued to customer after receipt of above information and a request for issuing of replacement card from | |the base branch of the customer. | |How can Customer prevent misuse of card in event of getting it misplaced? | |Customers are protected from the misuse/losses on the Debit Card after they report the loss to the Bank. They will be covered | |automatically under an insurance cover. Please note that this cover will be available to customers only for misuse of card atPOS,| |because at ATM misuse without PIN is not possible. Customer is neither supposed to divulge his PIN to anyone nor record the PIN | |anywhere. | [pic] SWOT Analysis SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTH: ? Financially strong bank ? Very old bank ? Aggressive marketing ? Good repo ? Technological advanced WEAKNESS: ? Guidelines are not flexible ? Power is not decentralized OPPORTUNITIES: ? New area is developing. So, there is vast chance for housing loan. ? Guidelines to be designed in such a way that needs of the all type of prospective borrowers should be fulfilled. THREATS: ? This is the nationalized bank so, competition may be with private banks ?Aggressive marketing strategies by private banks ? Entry of foreign banks in near future. [pic] Findings and Research Methodology Findings Q. 1. Are you a customer of BOB ? [pic] Interpretation:- Around 91. 60% are Bank of Baroda customer, because these surveys are conducted in various branches of BOB only. So majority are customer of BOB. Q. 2. Which type of A/C do you maintain? [pic] Interpretation:- According to survey there are majority of respondent are maintaining saving account. It’s very easy to maintain and also only 1000Rs. are required for opening these type of account. Q. 3. How long are you banking with BOB? [pic] Interpretation:-According to total respondent 29 respondent are banking with Bank of Baroda lies between 1-5 years and 26 respondent are banking with BOB more than 5 years. Q. 4. Which of the following facilities of BOB you use? [pic] Interpretation:- According to respondent 40 customer are using ATM/Debit Card and 18 customer are using Net banking. These show those customers are using ATM/Debit card facilities more than other facilities. Q. 5. How frequently do you use AMT/Debit card? [pic] Q. 6. What purpose you are us ing AMT/Debit card? [pic] Q. 7. Select the type of Baroda Connect a/c you use? Q. 8. How did you come to know about Baroda Connect? [pic] Q. 9.Which of the following do you use in Baroda Connect facility? [pic] Q. 10. How frequently do you use Baroda Connect (net banking facility)? [pic] Q. 11. Select some of the benefits of using Baroda Connect? [pic] Q. 12. Do you have demate A/C? [pic] Q. 13. Satisfaction level of using ATM/Debit card: [pic] Q. 14. Satisfaction level of using Baroda Connect (Net Banking): [pic] Q. 15. How frequently do you visit the branch? [pic] Q. 16. What are purpose of visiting the brand? [pic] Personal Detail:- ? Gender:- [pic] ? Education:- [pic] ? Monthly Income (Rs. ):- [pic] Research & Development ACTUAL COLLECTION OF DATA Data sources: The sources of data include either secondary data or primary data and even ome times the combination of both. The present study is more concentration on both primary and secondary data. Primary data: Primary data is colle cted through face-to face interaction with customers of the telecom companies, by meeting them in personal. Secondary data: The secondary data used for their study are inclusive of the data collected from the internet, catalogues and brochure. SAMPLING PLAN 1 Define Population ? Elements: Customers ? Sampling Units: Businessmen, Professional, House wives, Students. ? Extent: West, North, South, East 2 Sampling Frame ? Various Branches of Bank of Baroda, Ahmedabad city. 3 Sampling Method ? Random Sampling METHODOLOGYThe study will conduct on the bases of survey through questionnaires given to respondents. Sampling Design Population: Ahmadabad Sample Size: Population of 60 LEARNINGS The most important part is that they make me feel employee of the organization rather than a trainee and allow me to flourish in each and every department. They were so generous to me that at any mistake, rather scolding they taught me how to correct it & allow me to learn from that mistake. Learning inclu de, 1. Overview of the banking industry & their operation 2. Deep Knowledge of ATM/Debit Cards 3. Familiar with third party Products and Alternative delivery Channels 4. Gain knowledge of loan 5.Proposals that the bank has approved for the disbursement of loan 6. Working on CRISIL and learning some of its function 7. The most important learning of CIBIL& how to learn this CIBIL 8. Knowledge & functioning of LAPS software 9. Also Updated with SME Loans, City back offices, Service branch, MICR centre. 10. How to come out from the different problems & how to interact with customer. 11. Awareness of FINACLE software. Experience at Bank of Baroda I would like to conclude my project with a feeling of having gained enormous knowledge in the field of advances. My project has taught me a lot and has helped me sharpen my management skills for application aspect.I had wonderful experience for which I am greatly thankful to the entire staff of BOB who have continuously taught me by guiding in each and every step. It was a memorable experience of working in such a lively & dedicated atmosphere. Not to forget to mention that my two months training has removed my misconceptions regarding the working of public sector bank. Lastly, I would conclude it was such a memorable experience for me to be a part of BOB. Thanks a lot to all staff members of BOB for such a good co-operation. BIBILIOGRAPHY ? www. bankofbaroda. com ? www. google. com ? http://www. ibef. org/industry/Banking. aspx ? www. cibil. com ? www. crisil. com [pic] ———————– [pic]