28 Dec 2002

Heavy hand of govt in bank management must end: Singh
New Delhi: Planning Commission member NK Singh has said that the government should remove its 'heavy hand' from banking sector to push forward the unfinished agenda of banking and financial sector reforms in the country.

Canara Bank plans to raise Rs 300-crore tier-II capital
Mumbai: The Bangalore-based public sector bank Canara Bank is planning to raise Rs 300 crore tier-II capital, with a greenshoe option of another Rs 100 crore.

ICICI Direct to rope in local partners for expansion
Mumbai: ICICI Direct, the online trading service, is planning to expand its services nationwide by roping in local partner called direct business catalyst for achieving a 10-15 per cent growth in its customer base.

Kotak Mahindra bundles free insurance with plan
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund will offer free life insurance to prospective investors in its K Bond Deposit Plan, according to Atul Sharma, Vice-President Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Ltd.

Settling of motor accident claims - Police, insurance cos told to follow mandatory provisions
Chennai: The Madras High Court has held that in order to avoid any problem in settling the claims of persons involved in vehicle accidents, the mandatory provisions should be fully complied with by the police, insurance companies and the claimants.

Kotak Mahindra retail banking from February
Chennai: Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd will commence its banking operations as Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd by February 2003, according to Sandesh Kirkire, Head, Debt Funds.

FRB interest at 5.92 pc
Mumbai: The rate of interest on the floating rate bonds, 2017 (FRB 2017) applicable for the coming half-year shall be 5.92 per cent per annum as against 6.84 per cent in the previous half-year.

Nabard cuts capital gain bonds rates
Mumbai: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has decided to reduce the interest rate on its capital gains bonds to 6 per cent per annum from the existing rate of 6.5 per cent, with effect from January 2, 2003.

Jalan optimistic about achieving 8 pc growth
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has expressed optimism about achieving the 8 per cent growth targeted by the National Development Council for the Tenth Plan period.

Indian Bank may go for IPO in one year
Mumbai: Indian Bank is planning to approach the capital market for initial share sell (IPO) in one year, the Chairperson and Managing Director, Ranjana Kumar, said.

27 Dec 2002

Bank Economists' meeting opens in Bangalore today
Bangalore: The 24th session of the Bank Economists' Conference will begin its deliberations here on Friday with the theme 'Indian Banking: Managing Transformation'.

United Western to approve new board at AGM on Dec 28
Mumbai: The United Western Bank's annual general meeting slated for December 28 will give its nod for the constitution of a new board of directors.

PNB Gilts gets licence for merchant banking
Mumbai: PNB Gilts Ltd (PGL) has received clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for carrying out merchant banking activities.

Citicorp Fin issue gets `AAA(SO)'
Mumbai: Crisil has assigned `AAA (SO)' rating to the Rs 72.98 crore Citicorp Finance (India) Ltd securitisation transaction.

Highest safety rating for Exim Bank bonds
New Delhi: ICRA has assigned a LAAA (L Triple A) rating to the Rs 2,000 crore bond programme (enhanced from Rs 1,000 crore) of Export Import Bank of India. ICRA has also reaffirmed the LAAA rating to its outstanding bond programmes.

UTI Bank opens currency chest in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: While commissioning its online payment mechanism through a tie up with telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, UTI Bank has also opened its first currency chest in Hyderabad.

G-secs on stock retail mode
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India yesterday reduced the level of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) that banks are required to maintain on a daily basis from 80 per cent to 70 per cent.

Corpn Bank plans to recover Rs 100 cr from defaulters
Mangalore: Backed by the Securitisation Bill, Corporation Bank plans to recover close to Rs 100-crore from defaulters by March-end, the Chairman and Managing Director, Cherian Varghese, said.

26 Dec 2002

Vijaya Bank's tom-tom makes an impact
Hyderabad: Vijaya Bank preferred to adopt the social pressure method before resorting to taking the legal measure and pressed into service its staff from respective branches to the defaulters' premises.

Pvt companies garner 9 per cent of new life insurance biz
New Delhi: Life seems to be happier for everybody in the life insurance business with the 12 brand new private sector life insurance companies together cornering around 9 per cent of the total individual new business, measured terms of total insured amount (sum assured) during the period April-September 2002.

IDBI calls for lenders meet to consider Binny asset sale
Mumbai: The IDBI has called a meeting of all the secured creditors during the last week of December to consider a proposal to sell 1,260 grounds of land belonging to the ailing southern textile giant Binny Ltd.

SBI plans treasury-ALM system to streamline ops
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to come up with a world class comprehensive treasury and asset-liability management (ALM) system by August-September next year as part of efforts to streamline its operations.

ICICI Bank unveils Rs 145-cr asset-backed debt issue
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has for the first time launched a debt offering of asset backed security. The bank has come out with a Rs 145-crore of securities backed by its auto loans and construction equipment finance loans which are being sold through the book-building route on ICICI Bank's e-business' Website.

24 Dec 2002

PFC, consortium in deal for 12-bn Yen ECB
New Delhi: The state-run Power Finance Corporation on Monday inked a facility agreement with SBI, RZB Austria, Norin Chukin Bank, Singapore, SBI International, Mauritius and Syndicate Bank for raising an external commercial borrowing of 12 billion yen (Rs 480 crore).

BoI to set up representative office in China
Mumbai: Bank of India on Monday said it will be opening a representative office at Shenzen, China, tentatively on January 20, 2003 and has prepared a blueprint for business expansion in other countries.

HMA Soft finishes Swadhan makeover
Chennai: The Chennai-based HMA Software has completed a project intended to shift Indian Banks' Association's 'Swadhan' network of ATMs to a more efficient, multi-channel enabled open architecture-based system called 'Oasis'.

ICICI Bank to offer resident foreign accounts in 4 currencies
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has become the first domestic bank to launch a resident foreign currency account. Resident Indians can now open accounts with ICICI Bank to maintain funds in four foreign currencies Pound Sterling, US Dollar, Yen and Euro.

Tata AIG unveils Student Guard policy
Mumbai: Tata-AIG General Insurance has launched 'Student Guard', a specially designed travel insurance plan for Indian students going overseas for higher studies.

Flexcube for Kosovo bank
Bangalore: i-flex Solutions Ltd has announced that Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo, which functions as a central bank in Kosovo, has selected its flagship product Flexcube to centralise its banking operations.

Nabard aid for States to touch Rs 18,000 crore
Mumbai: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has so far disbursed Rs 15,000 crore under its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) this year.

Life insurance cos to follow code of conduct from Jan
Coimbatore: The `Code of Good Conduct' for the life insurance industry, that was approved at the Life Insurance Council meeting of December 16, is expected to be notified by the IRDA next month, industry sources say.

Kotak Mahindra Bank launch by March
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd is likely to start operations as Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd during February-March 2003, according to the company's Executive Director, C. Jayaram.

UTI Bank raises Rs 93 crore through bonds
Mumbai: UTI Bank has made an allotment of subordinate debt (Unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures) on private placement basis aggregating Rs 93.1 crore (including green-shoe option of Rs 43.1 crore) as the Bank's Tier-II capital.

SBI plans treasury group synergy
Mumbai: State Bank of India, its associates and subsidiaries are planning to bring in synergies in their treasury operations soon.

Madras Motor seeks time to settle dues
Chennai: The Madras Motor Sports Trust, whose properties have been seized by Indian Bank against dues of Rs 16 crore, has requested the bank to give it some more time to pay up, it is learnt.

KSFC to seek expert advice on NPAs
Bangalore: The state-owned term lender, Karnataka State Finance Corporation (KSFC), is likely to appoint an external expert to advise on its proposed asset recovery and asset management wings, according to Government sources.

BoB unveils debit card
Mumbai: Bank of Baroda has launched its international debit card in association with Visa International. The card will target two million cardholders in three years and will be accepted at over 10 million merchant locations and 8,00,000 Visa ATMs centres.

23 Dec 2002

Guidelines on UTI-II structure this week
New Delhi: The finance ministry will soon come out with policy guidelines to prevent clash of interest between UTI-II and mutual funds of its sponsors which include State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Hobson's choice for the Reserve Bank
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) invites market players to take a speculative view on rupee-dollar rates. The relaxations in exchange control regulations announced by the RBI have been widely interpreted as evidence of a calibrated move by it, towards full capital account convertibility.

LIC agents suggest plan for expanding network
Kolkata: The agents of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) have suggested the introduction of the Senior Agency Scheme for expanding the agent network. Shyamal Chakraborty, zonal secretary of Life Insurance Agents' Federation of India (LIAFI), said that the service of the club-member agents should be actively utilised for agent network expansion drives.

Market not ready for `de-tariffing' motor insurance
Mumbai: The Indian insurance market is not yet ready for de-tariffing of motor insurance. This is understood to be the view expressed by the Justice T.N.C Rangarajan Committee, which held discussions with automobile and insurance interests here on Sunday.

T-bills emerging most popular paper
Mumbai: Expectations are that credit is likely to accelerate in the coming months as the retail thrust of the banks translates into greater demand for project credits. Retail to project credit is currently in a ratio of 3:1, a reversal from what it was about 5 years ago.

SBI `help line' in Coimbatore
Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Module of the State Bank of India (SBI) is to kick start the `help line' (call centre) services on Monday.