13 december 2003

online clearing will hit banks hard
mumbai: the yet-to-be implemented, real time online clearing system, will drive down margins of banks, said bankers at the bank economists' conference.

uti bank opens `highest' atm in sikkim
mumbai: uti bank today inaugurated its atm at thegu, near the nathula pass in sikkim, which at 13,200 feet is the highest atm in india.

kmb promoters to wait & watch on stake dilution
chennai: kotak mahindra bank's promoters, the kotak mahindra group, want to wait for the evolution of the policy regarding ownership of banks to take a decision on diluting their stake in the bank.

12 december 2003

bank takeover laws not clear
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has expressed its discomfort over opaque laws governing take over of banks. one major area of concern, according to the rbi governor, dr y.v. reddy, is the amalgamation of nbfcs with banks. in this case, the law does not impose any obligation on the part of either the bank or the nbfc to seek the rbi's approval before filing the scheme of amalgamation in the courts.

reddy charts out roadmap for global standards
mumbai: in his first local public address after taking charge of reserve bank of india ,outside of the november policy review - yaga venugopal reddy revealed his confidence on the journey of indian banks towards achieving global standards.
"i have, no doubt, that our banks could well be on the anvil of being reckoned to be on par with international banks. my submission is that, to reach global standards, and hopefully surpass them, we need to focus on legal, institutional and transactions aspects, dr reddy said.

union bank takes lead, fixes plr at 10.75 per cent
mumbai: union bank of india has taken the lead among its peer banks in adopting a new benchmark plr, which has been fixed at 10.75 per cent.

ifc holding in gtb falls below 5 per cent
hyderabad: the equity holding of the international finance corporation (ifc) in global trust bank, has fallen below 5 per cent.

ivrcl board okays private placement to citicorp, chryscapital
hyderabad: the board of directors of ivrcl infrastructures and projects ltd on thursday in principle approved private placement of 80 lakh equity shares of the company at rs 125 per share of rs 10 each to citicorp international finance corporation, cvc international and chrys capital ii.

karnataka bank awards
mangalore: the delhi region of the karnataka bank has bagged the golden trophy for "best region" and ludhiana branch bagged the silver trophy for "best branch", instituted by the karnataka bank employees' association.

separate solvency margins must for insurance companies
thiruvananthapuram: the insurance regulatory and development authority (irda) should have prescribed separate solvency margins for new and old insurance companies, according to mr s. chidambaram, consulting actuary.

rbi allows banks to invest in debt funds
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has said banks can continue to invest in mutual funds units, which have fully invested in non-statutory liquidity ratio (slr) debt securities, listed or unlisted. they would, however, not be allowed to invest in mutual fund plans that invest more than 10 per cent of funds in unlisted securities from january 1, 2005.

11 december 2003

bob to hire 100 it professionals in 2004
mumbai: bank of baroda is planning to hire over 100 it professionals to develop technological infrastructure for offering core-banking solutions. bob has also tapped the job market to recruit a human resources development head.

to man its it upgrading plan, the bank has already short-listed 20 candidates for induction. "we will recruit people in phases as per requirements. in the next 12 to 16 months, we are planning to hire around 100 professionals," general manager v chandrasekhar was quoted as saying. these professionals will be recruited for a three-year' term and will get a market related remuneration package. bob board has also cleared its hiring plan.

l&t info eyes buyouts in banking, financial services
mumbai: l&t infotech, the information technology arm of larsen & toubro (l&t), is eyeing acquisitions in the core banking and financial services arena. the need is basically to complement its own activities in this arena. the mandate is to look for companies with strength in corporate and investment banking software arena to complement its own offerings in securities and insurance.

"we are looking at alliances and acquisitions in the banking and financial space," said y m deosthalee, cfo, l&t. l&t infotech has been in discussions with a wide range of companies but nothing has materialised till date because valuations have not favourably worked out. the possible acquisition target could be one that has a marketing face in the us and could provide market support. also, l&t infotech could provide the partnership for the indian market. the company, which registered revenues of rs 269.5 crore during the last fiscal, has also become the first company to offer end-to-end solutions on mobile phones, deosthalee was quoted as saying.

10 december 2003

genesis solution for ing vysya
bangalore: genesis it innovationson tuesday announced the completion of the audiovisual integration solutions for ing vysya and its corporate headquarters in bangalore. the project incorporates multiple audio and video devices.

visa posts big growth in india
mumbai: visa has recorded a substantial growth in the issue of number of cards, card sales volume and retail sales volume in india.

according to a visa india press release, in the third quarter ended september, the total number of visa cards touched the 14.77-million mark, registering a 121.6 per cent increase.

corporation bank receives forbes award
mangalore: corporation bank, which has been adjudged as one of the best 200 "under a billion" companies in the world outside the us by the forbes magazine, received the award at hong kong recently.

ca solutions for shamrao vithal co-operative bank
bangalore: computer associates international inc (ca) on tuesday announced that shamrao vithal co-operative bank ltd, one of the oldest co-operative banks in asia, has deployed ca's unicenter family of solutions to simplify it administration and improve customer service levels in support of strategic growth objectives.

aviva life to expand equity base
hyderabad: aviva life insurance india, the insurance joint venture between dabur and the uk-based aviva plc, has decided to pump in further equity of rs 80 crore shortly.

09 december 2003

bpcl completes first interest rate swap
mumbai: bharat petroleum corporation ltd on monday completed its first interest rate swap for a loan of rs 100 crore. citigroup completed the interest rate derivative transaction, a news release said.

rbi eases norms for overseas investment
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has liberalised and simplified the present policy of overseas direct investment.

the central bank has permitted indian companies to transfer shares of their joint ventures or wholly-owned subsidiaries abroad by way of sale under the automatic route.

bank of punjab in talks with citi, newbridge
mumbai: bank of punjab is in talks with a few strategic investors, including newbridge capital and citibank, for a possible placement of up to 49 per cent of its equity through the preferential route.

pension fund regulator to take off from new year
hyderabad: the much-awaited pension fund regulatory and development authority is scheduled to take off from january 1 next year offering defined contribution schemes to the newly-recruited central government staff, the joint secretary in the union ministry of finance, mr u.k. sinha, announced here on monday.

cub plans to network 25 branches
chennai: city union bank expects to be able to network 25 of its 125 branches before the end of this year. the bank has bought the core banking software of tata consultancy services, quartz.

mnyl in bancassurance talks with co-op banks
jaipur: in a bid to strengthen distribution, max new york life insurance company (mnyl) is tying up with two co-operative banks and will also enter into equity tie-ups with other banks

idbi bill scrapes through in lok sabha
new delhi: the government was highly embarrassed when the treasury benches could not muster the strength to pass the industrial development bank of india (transfer of undertaking and repeal) bill in the lok sabha.

08 december 2003

lic to review rentals to boost realty returns
mumbai: to tap higher returns and innovative schemes, life insurance corporation of india (lic) has started focusing aggressively on those investments which earlier were unpopular in its list of mammoth investment portfolio. in this direction, lic, which also happens to be the second biggest real estate owner in the country after the railways, has planned to make the maximum from this class of assets conservatively estimated at about rs 2,500 crore.

r n bhardwaj, managing director, lic said: "the modernisation in some of the branch offices and the head-office has already started. it's not only the face-lift but also creating more space and better utilisation by renting the spare space. our revalued real-estate assets are worth about rs 2,500 crore, whose current market price might be still far higher."

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