13 september 2003

sbi plans two schemes for nris
mumbai: state bank of india will be launching two new deposit schemes for non-resident indians - pravasi vaibhav and pravasi samriddh - on 24 september for a limited period. pravasi vaibhav is a deposit scheme denominated in rupees with payment of maturity proceeds in us dollars. the foreign currency amount received from the customer will be converted into rupees by the bank, to issue an nre special term deposit receipt (nre-stdr) for one year. the yield on pravasi vaibhav will depend upon the interest rates on nre deposits and cost of forward cover prevailing on the date of issue. at present, sbi offers 3.90 per cent on nre deposits with a maturity of up to one year to less than two years.
the stipulated minimum amount for deposits is $10,000 or equivalent. the tenure is one year and the maturity proceeds will be paid in us dollars. the pravasi samriddhi deposit, which will be booked at the bank's off-shore banking units (obus) at bahrain, nassau and seepz (mumbai), offers nris opportunity for investment on floating or fixed rates of interest, on cumulative and non-cumulative basis. this deposit will be denominated in us dollars and euro. the stipulated minimum amount is $5,000 and the tenure of deposit will be 1, 2, 3 and 5 years.

ing vysya bank to raise rs 200 crore via bonds
bangalore: ing-vysya bank has placed its tier-ii capital bonds in the markets at 6.25 per cent amounting to rs 200 crore. banking sources were quoted as saying that the bonds, rated 'aa plus' by both fitch and crisil, have a 10-year maturity profile without any early exit options. banks with comfortable tier-i capital situation have opted for tier-ii bond issues to increase the risk-weighted assets.
under current guidelines banks are permitted to have up to 45 per cent of their capital in the form of tier-ii. ing had total capital funds equivalent to rs 779.5 crore or equivalent of 9.86 per cent of the capital to risk-weighted assets. of this, tier-i capital alone was in the region of about 7 per cent. this allowed it substantial flexibility to raise low cost tier-ii capital, the sources said. the pricing for ing vysya bond issue is under 100 basis points above the 10-year sovereign rate. besides, the ing offering for 10 years was also uncommon, the sources said.

oriental insurance, malda bank join hands
kolkata: oriental insurance company ltd has signed an agreement with the malda-based gaur gramin malda bank for marketing of general insurance products on friday. the agreement will help the company reach out to the rural market.

centurion bank gets court approval for sabre rejig plan
mumbai: the bombay high court (goa bench) on friday approved the recapitalisation and restructuring of centurion bank. the bank said the court's final hearing approved the scheme of arrangement submitted by sabre capital. the reserve bank of india's (rbi) permission had also been sought for the same, said a senior official of centurion bank, which has its registered office in goa. in april 2003, sabre capital worldwide submitted the proposal to revive the private sector bank.
the proposal was approved by the bank's board of directors and subsequently by its shareholders and creditors. the scheme consists of three major proposals: restructuring of capital by reducing the face value of the bank's share from rs 10 to re 1, infusion of fresh capital of rs 319 crore in two phases and takeover of management control by sabre capital and merger of bank muscat with centurion bank.

five psbs to share online atm network
mumbai: five public sector banks have come together for a new atm sharing arrangement. canara bank, central bank of india, indian overseas bank, uco bank and union bank of india, on friday co-branded their atm network tie-up as "cash online". the dismantling of the swadhan atm network effective from december 2003, has led banks, both in the public and private sector to enter into consortium tie-ups to form co-branded networks such as cashnet, cashtree, and mitr.
cashonline, the shared atm network, has been launched with a view to exploiting the sectoral strengths of the banks to the mutual advantage of their vast clientele, said top officials with the five banks while addressing a press conference here on friday. the current combined atm strength of the banks at 600 will be increased to 1,500 by march 2004 and 2,700 by march 2005, officials said.

kakinada co-op bank net at rs 2.14 crore
kakinada: the kakinada cooperative town bank earned a net profit of rs 2.14 crore during 2002-03. m v v satyanarayana, chairman, said the bank has been given the grade a audit certificate. it had 11 branches and one more would be shortly opened at rajahmundry. he said the bank would declare a dividend of 18 per cent to shareholders after the general body meeting on september 27.
the bank had lent rs 50.67 crore and the non-performing assets (npas) amounted to 6 per cent. all efforts would be made to reduce the npas and during the past four months rs 75 lakh had been recovered.

12 september 2003

capital inflows: rbi act may be amended
mumbai: the reserve bank of india (rbi) is planning to issue special securities to mop up the rupee liquidity from the market resulting from the sterilisation of the forex deluge. an internal rbi group is examining the issue and may suggest amending the rbi act to enable the central bank to issue securities on its book. the rbi act 1934 does not permit the central bank to issue securities on its own.
the principal instrument for managing capital inflows in the country has been sterilisation. but as the recently issued rbi annual report for 2002-03 indicated, the rbi's management is also mooting other ideas to tackle this 'problem of plenty'.

rib redemption may help solve dollar shortage issue
mumbai: the forex market is planning a dollar shortage in the cash market between september end and middle of october in the wake of resurgent india bond (rib) redemptions. according to forex dealers, the forward premium to be paid for booking dollars during the end of september has gone up to 3.4 per cent. on the contrary, forward premiums on all other maturities from one month to one year are ranging between 1.90 per cent and 1.23 per cent respectively in that order.
dealers were quoted as saying that while the demand for forward dollars is increasing with the rising premium, demand for forward dollars of other maturities is virtually stagnant. the demand for booking september-end dollar is emerging from corporate as well as banks. dealers explained that the dollar demand during the period has risen on account of the redemption of the bonds.

atm outsourcing become effective
mumbai: banks are eyeing alternatives to owning and operating their own atms. the india switch company (isc), an independent payment systems provider, is planning to tap into this outsourcing opportunity by establishing 1,500 atms over the next three years for the recently formed 'cashtree' atm networking sharing alliance of five public sector banks - bank of india, union bank of india, indian bank, united bank of india and syndicate bank.
in its capacity as service provider for enabling transaction switching among banks, isc had signed a service level agreement in july with the five banks for establishing interconnectivity with their atm switches. mani mamallan, chief operating officer, isc, said a capital expenditure of about rs 100 crore is envisaged for setting up the 1500 atms for 'cashtree'.

11 september 2003