Rupee down 20 paise
Mumbai: The rupee closed at 45.35/36 against the dollar on Monday, about 20 paise weaker than Friday's close of 45.1550/1650.
Forwards Market: The six-month forward closed at 0.55 per cent (0.60 per cent) and the twelve-month forward closed at 0.51 per cent (0.52 per cent).
G-Secs: The 8.07 per cent 2017 paper opened at Rs 120.80 and closed at Rs 119.90. The 6.25 per cent 2018 paper opened at Rs 103.85 and closed 85 paise lower. The 7.37 per cent 2014 paper opened at Rs 115.40 and closed at Rs 114.84.
Call Rates: Stable at 4.25-4.50 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

RBI: The hazy world of Financial Conglomerates
Mumbai: An inter-regulatory working group of the RBI, SEBI and IRDA has proposed identifying `financial conglomerates' (FCs) and putting them under regulatory coverage. According to its report a group would be designated as a 'Financial Conglomerate' if it has significant operations in at least two financial market segments, which by way of an example, could be banking and insurance or insurance and asset management.

Some of the groups that may come under the purview are top public sector banks such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank and private sector giants such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. Foreign banks such as Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank would also come under the scanner. As per the criteria suggested by the working group, even large corporate clusters such as Reliance, Tata, Birla, Bajaj, Kotak, Sundaram and Sahara groups, which have significant presence in the business of finance, would be seen as FCs. NBFCs and merchant bankers such as Merrill Lynch and GE Capital could also be defined as conglomerates.

According to the report, the emergence of multi-segmental groups and associated cross-linkages has generated several supervisory concerns. There are worries about opaque intra-group transactions and exposures (ITEs) - both financial and non-financial. The report, released for public comment today, says that ITEs could result in capital or income being inappropriately transferred from the regulated entity. Such transactions can adversely affect the solvency, liquidity and profitability of individual entities within a group. The report says that ITEs are also sometimes used as a means of supervisory arbitrage, thereby evading capital or other regulatory requirements altogether.
Back to News Review index page  

IBA calls unions for talks
Mumbai: The Indian Banks' Association has called the various bank unions for a discussion on wage revision on July 2. This comes after pre-budget discussions between the Central Trade Unions and the Finance Minister, wherein the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh demanded along with other labour issues that the deadlock on wage revision of bank employees be resolved. The last round of discussions on wage revision was held in April.
Back to News Review index page  

HSBC net up 32 per cent
Mumbai: The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in India has reported a 32 per cent rise in net profit for the year-ended March 31, 2004. Net profit increased to Rs 197.8 crore from Rs 150.3 crore in the previous year.

According to HSBC (India), the bank's strong performance was driven mainly by business opportunities arising from the growth in the Indian economy as well as from increased emphasis on sales and marketing. The bank could achieve a 32 per cent rise in net profit even after a VRS outgo of Rs 196 crore during the year.
While costs have gone up only 2 per cent, the net operating income has increased 29 per cent to Rs 1,396.6 crore from Rs 1,084 crore. Total assets rose by 21 per cent to Rs 25,356.9 crore (Rs 20,909.7 crore). The bank's net NPA declined to 0.70 per cent during the year from 1.03 per cent in 2002-03.
Back to News Review index page 

Syndicate Bank gets ready for second public issue
Manipal: The Syndicate Bank board and the annual general meeting of shareholders of the bank have approved the decision to go in for a second public issue which may come out in about two to three months time.

The issue will be of Rs 50 crore face value. Premium and other aspects will be decided at the time of entering the market. The bank has introduced a "multi-city account" whereby the customer can operate his account in any of the branches having CBS (core banking solution) facility. As many as 150 CBS branches have become fully operational, and another 75 CBS branches will be operational by December 2004.
Back to News Review index page