LIC, Corpn Bank cooperation
Mangalore: The chairman of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, S.B. Mathur, who met the chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, K. Cherian Varghese, here discussed about enlarging various areas of business activities to the mutual benefit of both the organisations. Senior executives of LIC and the bank were present at the meeting. A press release by the bank said here that they also discussed about thrust to be given for distributing bancassurance products and issues relating to expansion of the bank's network of branches. The meeting was held to review the progress made in the implementation of various terms of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two organisations on June 6, 2001. LIC has invested 27 per cent in the equity of Corporation Bank.
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Hudco agrees to reopen lending window
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Government has reached an understanding with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) under which the latter will reopen the lending window to those undertakings that have repeatedly defaulted in making loan repayments. Hudco, which was not willing to issue fresh loans to the defaulters, was brought around to reconsider its stand after protracted negotiations with the State Government officials here. As per the terms of the new understanding, the loans would be rescheduled allowing these undertakings breathing space to pay up in instalments, subsequent to which fresh loans would be issued.

Various undertakings under the control of the State Government had run up defaults totalling of Rs 695 crore as of July 2002. Besides, they had also left behind Rs 1675 crore as unutilised capital. Application of the terms agreed on between the two parties would lead to a revising down of these figures to Rs 202 crore and Rs 248 crore respectively. The Kerala State Housing Board (KSHB) alone owed Rs 328 crore in defaulted payments and Rs 1,044 crore as outstanding loan.

The KSHB has since paid up Rs 160 crore, enabling Hudco to resume lending to the public sector undertaking. The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) had run up Rs 124 crore in loan arrears. Assuming that Hudco would be agreeable to converting arrears amounting to Rs 52 crore as equity in CIAL, the outstanding amount on this count would be brought down to Rs just 6 crore. All other defaulting companies have together paid up Rs 395 crore to Hudco. A State Government official said here that Hudco has since resumed full-fledged lending operations and had sanctioned Rs 585.15 crore during 2002-03 for various projects. Of this, Rs 55 crore was used for the construction of 40,774 housing units.
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ICICI PruLife's bancassurance pact
Mumbai: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has tied up with four more banks for its bancassurance business - The Goa State Co-operative Bank, Jalgaon People's Co-operative Bank, Indoor Paraspar Sahakari Bank, and Manipal State Co-operative Bank - taking the company's total bank partners to eleven.
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Jersey woos Indian business
Abu Dhabi: Jersey, one of the world's major international finance centres has a lot to offer NRIs and resident Indians with global interests and assets. Institutions in the British Channel Island are catering to Indian clientele in larger numbers in recent years, according to members of a high-level delegation from Jersey currently visiting the UAE. Phil Austin, chief executive, Jersey Finance Ltd, the semi-Government body charged with promoting the island as an international finance centre, told Business Line
that India is recognised as a huge market and many of the banks and other financial institutions operating out of Jersey do a significant amount of business with Indian clients. "It is a market that we are considering targeting more.

Currently, there is a substantial amount of Indian business that is being carried out. HSBC, for instance, which has its international headquarters in Jersey is doing a significant amount of Indian business," he said. Senator Frank Walker, First Minister of Jersey, said that currently, Jersey has around £400 billion sterling of funds under management. The centre offers a range of financial services and expertise in the areas of setting up and managing trusts, funds and servicing private and corporate clients across the world, he said. He maintained that Jersey was a very safe place to invest and the 55 licensed banks there were among the top 500 listed institutions across the globe. He added that Jersey has in place a strong regulatory regime that has very successfully tackled money
laundering.

It has complied with the FATF regulations, he added. Sixty-five per cent of Jersey's £2 billion sterling GDP comes from the finance sector. Financial services have been the mainstay of the island for the past forty years. A record level of bank deposits has been registered in Jersey despite the recessionary international climate in the recent past, the official added.
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