LVB, ICICI Infotech join hands for core banking tool
Hyderabad: Aimed at joining the elite group of banks offering online banking conveniences to the customers, Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd (LVB) has entered into an agreement with ICICI Infotech for developing core banking solution. At present, LVB and ICICI Infotech are jointly developing such a solution by integrating the front end of the existing LBS 2001 software with ICICI Infotech's Newton software, the LVB chairman and chief executive officer, A. Krishnamoorthy, informed the shareholders through the bank's latest annual report.

He said: "This venture will enable the bank to offer a gamut of new generation online banking convenience to the customers. A Wide Area Network will be established to connect the branches and offices and this network will enable the facility of anywhere anytime banking." The bank has also appointed KPMG as its information technology consultant to offer consultancy services and to also enable the bank chart a detailed strategy. During last fiscal, the bank has increased the number of automated branches to 56 by porting the LBS 2001 software in 29 more branches. Similarly, the number of partially automated branches was augmented to 126 by porting the legacy software in 40 more branches. The bank has also extended tele-banking facilities to five branches.
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Syndicate Bank offers new home loan rates
Bangalore: Syndicate Bank has announced new rates for housing loans — for both fixed and floating rate schemes. A bank release said here that the for loans up to 5 years, the rates have been fixed at 8.25 per cent under the fixed rate scheme and a spread of 3.25 per cent above the PLR for the floating rate scheme. For tenors between 10-20 years, the rates have been fixed at 9.25 per cent up to Rs 10 lakh and 9.50 per cent for amounts above Rs 10 lakh, under the fixed rate scheme. Under the floating rate scheme, the spreads over the PLR have been fixed at 2.5 per cent and 2.25 per cent respectively, the release added.
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State Bank to introduce two retail products
Chennai: The State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to introduce two new retail products ‘SBI Shop’ and ‘SBI dairy farm’ shortly. The bank intends to disburse nearly Rs 1,000 crore under these products across the country. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, SBI chairman AK Purwar said the bank is looking at enhancing its lending considerably. “We want to enhance our lending by a couple of notches during the coming years. Within the next couple of months, SBI will introduce ‘SBI shop,’ a scheme for financing construction, renovation and modernisation works of shops. It will also come out with another product to finance farmers in the dairy farming segment,” he said adding, “We intend to fund nearly 10 shops per branch initially. We will be disbursing nearly Rs 1,000 crore under these two products.”

On the other side, the bank is focussed on improving its credit quality by upgrading assets, improving recoveries. “The bank is targeting to reduce its net non-performing assets (NPAs) to 3.2 per cent by March 2004 and two per cent by March 2005 from the level of 5.63 per cent in March 2003,” he said. “With the change in the provisions, the bank is expecting its NPAs to go up by Rs 1,000 crore. However, it has chalked out plans to ensure that it achieves the NPA target,” he added.
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ICICI Pru first premium income rises 132% to Rs 70 crore in Q1
Mumbai: The largest domestic private sector life insurance company ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has maintained its lead over other players by posting a 132 per cent rise in first premium income at Rs 70 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2003. To meet rising business, the company has infused an additional capital of Rs 100 crore, taking the equity base to Rs 525 crore. A joint venture of ICICI Bank and the UK-based Prudential PLC, the company has issued 51,000 new policies in the first quarter of the current fiscal, said ICICI Prudential Life Insurance managing director and CEO Shikha Sharma.

The total premium income, including renewal premium, stood at Rs 97 crore for April-June 2003. The company has sold about four lakh policies till June 2003. Average premium on the regular premium policies has grown to Rs 16,000 from Rs 13,000, said Sharma. “The current high growth rate, overtaking industry growth rate, will continue for five to six years. We expect it to slow down beyond that to align with the sectoral trend,” she added. ICICI and Prudential have brought in additional capital in the ratio of their respective holding in the joint venture (74:26), taking the total capital base to Rs 525 crore, Sharma added.
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Gross borrowings up to Rs 64,030 crore, says PNB Gilts
New Delhi: The Centre’s gross borrowings rose marginally to Rs 64,030 crore till July 12 as compared to the year-ago period level, according to PNB Gilts, which said the Resurgent India Bond (RIB) redemption may not put pressure on forex and domestic money markets. “The expected pressure on the forex and domestic money markets on account of RIB redemptions in October is not likely to materialise in view of adequate forex purchases by the Reserve Bank in the forward market,” PNB Gilts said in the latest review. With the gross mop up of Rs 64,030 crore so far, against Rs 64,028 crore in the corresponding period in 2002-03, the government has completed 38.5 per cent of budgeted borrowings of Rs 1,66,230 crore in this year, PNB Gilts said on Tuesday.
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India Inc seeks better monsoon for recovery: D&B survey
Mumbai: According to the business expectation survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet India, business confidence has improved significantly compared to the previous quarter. The overall positive outlook has resulted in the composite business optimism index for Q3 (Jul-Sep), 2003 improving by 6.3 per cent to 126.5 from 119 in Q2 2003. Five out of the six optimism indices including net sales, net profit, new orders, inventory levels and employees have shown improvement while index for selling prices has declined compared to the previous quarter, the survey said.

“The recovery appears to be on a firm footing. A good monsoon should provide an impetus to the fortunes of India Inc in the coming years,” Dun & Bradstreet - South Asia vice-president and managing director Rajesh Mirchandani said. The D&B Optimism index measures the pulse of the business community and is based on a quarterly survey conducted on a sample of companies randomly selected from D&B commercial credit file. According to a release issued by Dun & Bradstreet, 75 per cent respondents in the business community expect sales volume to pick up while only nine per cent expect a decline. Among the segments interviewed, manufacturers of capital goods are most optimistic about their volume of sales followed by consumer non-durable producers, the release said.
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