Rupee gains by 2 paise
Mumbai: The rupee closed higher by two paise against the dollar at 46.4550/4650 on Tuesday. The domestic currency got support from the central bank, which enabled the rupee to strengthen. On Monday, the domestic currency lost 8 paise due to mopping up of dollars by the Reserve Bank of India and closed at 46.47/48.
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NHB posts 164% growth in refinance disbursements
Mumbai: National Housing Bank (NHB) has registered a 164-per cent growth in refinance disbursements that reached Rs 2,710 crore during the financial year ending June 30, 2003. The housing refinance institution had disbursed Rs 1,024 crore during the same period last year. The sharp increase in disbursals was mainly on account of a liberalised refinance scheme for housing finance companies and commercial banks. "In view of its competitive interest rate structure and flexible terms of lending, the scheme found favour with many housing finance companies and scheduled banks," a company release said here. The new scheme, introduced last year, gives the borrowing institution greater flexibility in interest rate on fixed and floating rate basis and shorter repayment period. Besides, the institutions are also allowed to convert interest rate on loans from fixed to floating and vice versa and are charged minimal penalty for repayment, the release said. The NHB charges interest ranging from 7.10-7.95 per cent on fixed rate loans and 6.90-7.75 per cent on floating rate basis for a five-year tenure. It has announced a further cut of 25 basis points for loans from June. During the recently closed financial year, NHB raised Rs 1,940 crore through capital gains bonds and Rs 575 crore through tax-free bonds besides arranging tier II capital of Rs 400 crore. The incremental cost of borrowing for the institution has come down to 6.03 per cent, it said.
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Syndicate Bank campaigns in Dakshina Kannada
Mangalore: As part of the ongoing campaign to popularise its Syndnivas housing loan scheme, Syndicate Bank conducted another awareness programme in the Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada. According to a press release, the bank offers housing loans under `attractive reduced interest rates' under the Syndnivas scheme. Branch managers from various branches in Sullia taluk attended the programme, the press release has added.
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IndusInd Bank forays into lucrative gold trading
Mumbai: Indusland Bank is entering into bullion trading business across 9 centres. Being a business of thin margins, few banks are optimistic about it. The private sector bank aims to capture a 15-20 per cent of Rs 25,000 crore per annum gold import market in the first year of its operation, said the bank in its press release. Gold is brought into the country mainly through designated banks or through NRIs returning home. The role of an intermediary between the overseas suppliers and the domestic buyers without itself stocking the yellow metal is what IndusInd Bank plans to do. The bank, which has set a minimum lot size of 10 kilogram plans to do the business in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Secunderabad, according to the release.
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IOB adds Rs 800-crore fresh advances in two months
Chennai: Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has added fresh advances of nearly Rs 800 crore during the first two months of the current fiscal, S.C. Gupta, chairman and managing director, said on Tuesday. The advances portfolio was now around Rs 200 crore over the March 2003 level of Rs 17,450 crore, after a dip of around Rs 600 crore in April 2003. He said that the bank had targeted an incremental growth in advances of Rs 2,750 crore for the current fiscal. This was around Rs 500 crore more than the growth of around Rs 2,200 crore in the last two years. Gupta said that a major part of the growth in advances would come from the retail and trade advances portfolio. Housing loans segment, which saw disbursements of the order of Rs 591 crore in the last fiscal are expected to generate Rs 700 crore of new business in this fiscal. To achieve the increased credit target of Rs 2,750 crore, Gupta said, the management had identified 200 "thrust" branches which would be expected to deliver 5 per cent more growth than the average growth for the bank.
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Fall in interest rates; bank credit growth continues
Mumbai: Notwithstanding a significant fall in interest rates, the growth in bank credit has decelerated in the past one year. As per the latest data available with the Reserve Bank of India, the rate of growth of gross bank credit dropped to 13.4 per cent as on June 2003 compared with 24.68 per cent growth in the corresponding period in the previous year. The growth in non-food credit has dipped sharply to 16.47 per cent (24.76 per cent) and growth in food credit has slowed down to 24.28 per cent (40.11 per cent). According to analysts, although banks have dropped the lending rates post-monetary policy (in April 2003), the outstanding gross bank credit in the system has dipped by around 1.5 per cent over the past three months alone, from Rs 7,41,770 crore in March 28 to Rs 7,30,653 crore as on May 30. Again, in the first fortnight of June, gross bank credit has dipped by Rs 524 crore to touch Rs 7,70,130 crore.
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StanChart securitises part of car loan portfolio
Mumbai: Standard Chartered Bank has securitised a portion of its car loan portfolio aggregating Rs 105.72 crore by way of issue of senior pass through certificates. The foreign bank, which was the originator of the auto loans, will continue to service these loans, according to a StanChart press release. The first asset-backed issuance by Standard Chartered in the Indian market opened on June 25. It received favourable response from several mutual funds and was fully subscribed in two days of being in the market, said the release. The underlying assets for the asset-backed securitisation programme are auto loan receivables from a pool of 4,630 loan contracts with cash flows totalling Rs 113.36 crore with a weighted average tenure of 33.10 months.
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Oscar Investment debenture is high safety: ICRA
Kolkata: ICRA has assigned a conditional LAA (SO) rating to the Rs 75-crore share-backed debenture programme of Oscar Investments Ltd, a company promoted by the Ranbaxy group. This is the first share-backed programme of its kind announced by the rating agency. The rating is based on a pledge of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (RLL) shares, value & volume triggers and funding mechanism of the debt servicing reserve account to ensure timely payment of obligations. It indicates high safety.
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ARCIL likely to start operations in mid-July
New Delhi: The Asset Reconstruction Company of India Ltd (ARCIL), promoted by the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, IDBI and other banks, is planning to start operations by the middle of this month. SBI is also awaiting the amendments in the banking secrecy laws to flag off the Credit Information Bureau of India Ltd (Cibil), ARCIL chairman AK Purwar said. While Cibil will provide vital information about companies approaching banks for loans and reduce the risks of defaults, ARCIL will assist in the speedy recovery of sticky assets and clean up the balance of banks and FIs. “ARCIL will start operations in July,” Purwar said, adding the company is awaiting the Reserve Bank’s approval. Initially, SBI along with IDBI and ICICI Bank decided to promote ARCIL with 24.5 per cent stake each. But they have decided to recast the equity holding structure and are likely to hold a little less than 20 per cent in ACRIL, slated to start operations with non-performing and stressed assets worth Rs 7,000 crore. ICICI Bank, SBI and IDBI decided to shed a portion of their pies in order to rope in more number of banks including the Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and UTI bank. ARCIL was registered last fiscal with an initial capital of Rs 10 crore. It will create a trust which will float mutual funds after getting the necessary nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The legal documents for transfer and identification of assets to be taken up and other things have been put in place.
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Karur Vysya Bank seeks Rs 100-cr from NHB
Chennai: Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) is planning to procure refinancing facility from National Housing Bank (NHB) to the tune of Rs 100 crore. The bank is also planning to reduce interest rates on housing loans by about 0.5 per cent from the present level of 11-11.5 per cent. The proposal is still under discussion and is yet to be placed before the board. The bank will also develop new home loan products for effective deployment of NHB funds, he said adding refinance is now given at around six per cent. The bank will soon be reducing interest rates on housing loans by another 0.5 per cent to be more competitive in the market. KVB has dispersed about Rs 150 crore under its housing loan portfolio since April. During the current fiscal, KVB is targeting deposits of Rs 6,500 crore and advances of Rs 4,400 crore. The bank is looking at a profitability of Rs 165 crore during the year.
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Vajpayee to launch LIC Varishtha on 14 July
Mumbai: Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has decided to launch Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) Varishtha Pension Scheme on 14 July in New Delhi. The central government's subsidised pension scheme offers 9 per cent return. The scheme, which Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had announced in the budget, was originally to be launched nationwide on June 17 by LIC’s zonal offices. But last-minute intervention from the big bosses of the ministry of finance forced LIC to postpone the launch. ‘‘We are happy that things now stand clear and we will be able to sell the much-awaited product soon. We are not bothered about the political angle to the scheme,’’ says a source in LIC. Targeting over Rs 2,000 crore, LIC had completed all formalities and received clearances from the ministry of finance and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) for the scheme.
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