Rupee up 8 paise
Mumbai: The rupee appreciated against the dollar to end today's trading session at 45.0875.
Forwards Market - The six months forward closed at 0.58 per cent and the one-year forward closed at 0.63 per cent.
G-Secs- The 8.07 per cent 2017 paper traded at Rs.124.20 in the early half and closed at Rs.124.95. The ten-year benchmark, the 7.37 per cent 2014 paper closed lower at Rs.117.13 with a corresponding yield of 5.17 per cent.
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ABN Amro offers 'World Citizen Banking'
Mumbai: ABN-Amro Bank has said in a release that it will offer India-based, investment options among other specialised banking services to non-resident Indians in Singapore and in other South East Asian countries through its offering 'World Citizen Banking.'
According to a press release the bank plans to tap the over 7.5 million NRIs spread across the globe and another 20 million people of Indian origin with annual earnings of over $ 300 billion.
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HDFC mulls entity for real estate
Mumbai: Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) is considering a proposal to set up a separate entity to acquire properties and lease them to large Indian corporates and multinational companies. Initially, the new entity would focus on cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai where the demand for space is expected to grow.

The company would act similar to a property fund or a Real Estate Investment Trust wherein an institutional mechanism was in place to own and manage properties and also deal with clients.
According to the bank, this $3.6-billion industry will rocket to around $13 billion by the year 2007. This is mainly due to emerging markets in Asia having become the preferred destination for outsourcing operations of multinationals.
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LIC insures 2 crore individuals
Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has extended insurance protection to two crore individuals in the current fiscal up to March 15. The corporation has underwritten 2.05 crore policies with an assured sum of Rs 1,48,284.88 crore and first premium of Rs 6,137 crore.

This is exclusive of 3.10 lakh policies under the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, where a premium of Rs 5,700 crore has been collected. Besides this, group cover to 22.69 lakh lives has been granted, the new premium under group schemes being Rs 2,332.85 crore, said a release from LIC.
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Union Bank ties up with ECGC
Mumbai: Union Bank of India has entered into an assurance tie-up with the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation Ltd (ECGC) for marketing the latter's export credit insurance products. Through this tie-up exporters can avail of ECGC's policies from the bank's own branches, without having to go to the corporation.

By the end of the current fiscal, export credit for the bank would be around Rs.3, 000 crore and export turnover up to December 2003 will be at Rs.8,797 crore. The year-on-year growth in export credit is expected to be 18-20 per cent as on March 2004.
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SBT launches 'traders special'
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Bank of Travancore (SBT) is launching a new loan scheme to provide credit to small traders at competitive pricing. The "traders special" scheme is being floated in association with the "Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi" and local chambers of commerce at town and district levels.

The maximum amount available under the scheme is Rs.2 lakh. The loans up to Rs.50, 000 are to be repaid in 36 monthly instalments, while those above that amount can be continued as running cash credit accounts.The loans will carry an interest rate of 10 per cent.
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Co-operative banks can now trade on CCIL platform
Hyderabad: HDFC Bank has announced that it has entered into an alliance with Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL), to offer the latter's collateral borrowing and lending obligation (CBLO) product to cooperative banks that are not direct members of the negotiated dealing system (NDS).

HDFC Bank says that it has come forward with CCIL to help those cooperative banks that do not have the wherewithal or comfort to deal on an online electronic trading platform.
The Bank has said that cooperative banks will find this product very useful to manage their liquidity, as most of them are unable to access the repo market.
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