Rupee firms up
Mumbai: The rupee closed around three paise stronger at 45.48 per dollar on Tuesday in a fairly steady forex market, as against Monday's closing levels at 45.51/52,
Forward Market: The six-month forward closed at -0.22 per cent (-0.17 per cent) and the one-year forward closed at - 0.08 per cent (- 0.05 per cent). The one-month forward closed at - 0.16 per cent and the three-month forward closed at - 0.41 per cent.
G-Secs: The 8.07 per cent 2017 paper closed 95 paise higher at Rs 123.35/40 (Rs 122.45), while the 7.37 per cent 2014 paper closed at Rs 116.80, 5.17 per cent YTM, as against yesterday's levels of Rs 116.18, 5.25 per cent YTM.
Call rates closed easy at around 4.25 per cent levels in the inter-bank market.
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Domestic holdings of US Treasuries up by $300 m
Bangalore: Domestic institutions and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have hiked their investments in US Government securities by $300 million (around Rs 1,365 crore) in March this year, and as a result, gross holdings of the US Government securities by Indian institutions and RBI rose to $12.3 billion (around Rs 55,965 crore) in March. China has raised its investments in U S securities by about $3.4 billion to $148.4 billion, according to figures released by the U S Treasury Department.

Besides RBI, the other agencies holding US Treasuries include General Insurance Corporation (GIC) and foreign branches of domestic banks or subsidiaries. RBI has invested foreign currency reserves in US and other foreign government securities, deposits with foreign banks and multilateral institutions such as the Bank for International Settlements and the European Central bank.
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RBI leaves rates unchanged
Mumbai: The RBI has left the Bank Rate, Repo and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) unchanged and at the same time, it has scaled down its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent for the current fiscal from 8.1 per cent in the previous year. On interest rates, the RBI Governor has said that the central bank would maintain 'status quo' as there are some signs of economic recovery and interest rates in major economies are likely to harden. The regulator has said that the overall stance of the monetary policy 2004-05 will be to provide adequate liquidity to meet credit growth, support investment and export demand in the economy, while keeping a close watch on inflation.
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Service charges waived to boost ECS and EFT
Chennai: With a view to reducing paper-based clearing, the RBI has waived service charges on banks for Electronic Clearing Services (ECS) and Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) up to March 2006. The charges for electronic clearing were earlier fixed at 50 paise per transaction.

According to RBI data, the total value of transactions put through electronic clearing (ECS & EFT) in 2002-03 was Rs 10,222 crore. Although this reflected a 67 per cent growth over the previous fiscal, electronic clearing volumes are still small. Its contribution to the total payments system was a mere 7 per cent in value terms and about 3 per cent in volume terms.
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MFIs will have to comply with RBI norms
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India, in its annual policy statement for 2004-05, has stated that micro-finance institutions (MFIs) would not be permitted to accept public deposits unless they comply with the extant regulatory framework of the RBI.
This decision was taken in order to protect the interests of depositors and on the basis of the recommendations of the Vyas Committee, which studied the sector.

In order to facilitate better flow of credit to the small borrower in the agricultural sector, RBI has also permitted banks to waive margin/security requirements for agricultural loans up to Rs 50,000 and in case of agri-business and agri-clinics for loans up to Rs 5 lakh. At present banks are allowed to take margin and security in case of agricultural loans above Rs 10,000.
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No licences for UCBs
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has frozen fresh licences to urban co-operative banks (UCBs) until a legal and regulatory framework for the UCBs is in put in place. According to the RBI, as at end-December 2003, out of 2,104 urban co-operative banks (UCBs), 176 were under liquidation and 636 had turned weak/sick.

The NPAs of UCBs have also been on the rise from 11.8 per cent of their total advances at end-March 1998 to 21.0 per cent as on March 2003. After the liberalisation of licensing norms in May 1993, up to June 2001, 823 licences were issued and it was observed that 31 per cent of these newly licensed UCBs became financially unsound within a short period.
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