Rupee up a bit as G-Secs remain listless
Mumbai: The rupee ended up marginally higher against the dollar on Monday closing slightly higher at 43.77 levels. It had finished at 43.81/82 levels at the end of the previous week.

Forwards Market: The six-month forward closed up at 2.25 per cent after opening at similar levels. On Thursday, it had closed at 2.44 per cent. The 12-month forward closed at 1.82 per cent in a range-bound forwards market.

G-Secs: The benchmark 7.38 paper closed at 6.75 per cent after opening at similar levels. It had ended at 6.71 per cent during the previous session.

Call Rates: ruled easy at 4.70-4.80 levels amid good supplies.

CBLO Market: There were 120 trades amounting to volumes of Rs5,249.65 crore in the rate range of 4.657 per cent to 5.25 per cent.
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Centurion Bank steps into housing finance
Mangalore: Centurion Bank will begin its housing finance operations in the current financial year. The bank would commence housing finance activity in Mumbai and Bangalore soon.

The bank wants to open 13 more branches, over and above the 62 now in operation. It said that most of them will open by the end of the current financial year.

Centurion Bank is also planning to offer a bouquet of services to NRI customers.
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Bank of Baroda plans offices in Thailand and Singapore
Mumbai: As part of its global expansion plans, Bank of Baroda (BoB) plans to set up a representative office in Thailand and is awaiting approvals from authorities in host countries for opening a branch in Houston, Texas, US.

The bank also plans to set up an offshore branch in Singapore, after obtaining necessary approvals from host country authorities. The offshore branch will be a hub for BoB's proposed Asia-Pacific operations, said a press release.

The bank is awaiting RBI approvals for opening offices in Bangladesh, Canada, Maldives, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago and is also looking forward to an expansion in the UAE and the UK in the first phase.
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Insurance agency: Entry norms for UCBs eased
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has said that primary urban co-operative banks (UCBs) having a minimum networth of Rs50 crore can henceforth undertake insurance agency business, without risk participation. Earlier, this kind of business was confined to UCBs with a minimum net worth of Rs100 crore.

The central bank has reiterated that no UCB should undertake insurance agency business without obtaining its prior permission. All primary UCBs may also undertake insurance business on a referral basis, without any risk participation through their network of branches.

Under the referral arrangement, banks can provide physical infrastructure within their select branch premises to insurance companies for selling their insurance products to the bank's customers with adequate disclosure and transparency, and in turn earn referral fees on the basis of premia collected.

Banks must ensure that they comply with the IRDA regulations for undertaking referral business with insurance companies and should not adopt any restrictive practice of forcing customers to go in only for a particular insurance company in respect of assets financed by the bank.
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Banks - Q3 results
IOB Q3 net profit up 13.5 per cent
Chennai: Indian Overseas Bank's net profit for the third quarter of the current year increased 13.5 per cent over the corresponding period of last year, mainly because of lesser provisioning, while total income increased by Rs12.60 crore.

But the bank's operating profit for the quarter slid nearly 3 per cent, because of a one-percentage point rise in total expenditure as a proportion of total income.

The bank lent about Rs3,900 crore during the quarter, while its deposits increased by Rs1,180 crore. Rs782 crore of the advances were made as home loans. Likewise, over Rs1,000 crore of the deposits were the low cost 'savings bank' type.

Cash recovery during the quarter was Rs187 crore, against a target of Rs250 crore for the full year. In addition, about Rs77 crore of assets turned standard. The bank's NPAs stood reduced 1.57 per cent, from 2.85 per cent as on March 31, 2004.

Syndicate Bank posts Rs.78 crore loss for Q3
Bangalore: The Syndicate Bank has recorded a net loss of Rs78.11 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, against Rs89 crore net during the corresponding period for the previous fiscal.

The bank has shown a growth of 20 per cent in its income from interests for the current quarter. Its income from interests was Rs964.72 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal (Rs763.71 crore).

The bank said its setback was due to a Rs382-crore depreciation on securities worth Rs7,800 crore transferred from the Available-for-Sale to Held-to-Maturity category permitted by RBI as a one time measure.

The bank's overall expenditure increased by 18 per cent to Rs894.44 crore over the corresponding period during 2003. The total income, however, showed an increase of 12 per cent. The bank also made a provision of Rs25 crore during October-December 2004 for wage settlement. Pending finalisation of the settlement, the bank had so far made a provision of Rs75 crore, which includes Rs40 crore allotted last year for the expenditure.

The bank made a modest gain during the nine months ended December 2004 with a net profit of Rs123 crore (Rs 305 crore) from an overall global business of Rs70,163 crore. This was an increase of 27.48 per cent year on-year for the period.

The bank hoped to improve its performance during the quarter with the projected overall business crossing Rs 78,000 crore.

The bank is also mulling over a public issue before the end of this fiscal. The objective of the public second public issue was to increase the capital adequacy to over 12 per cent from 11.42 per cent.

Canara Bank Q3 net down 26 per cent
New Delhi: Canara Bank has registered a 26 per cent dip it its third quarter net profit. The bank's Q3 net profit fell to Rs273.98 crore from Rs372.69 crore in October-December quarter of 2003-04.

Canara Bank's total income in Q3 increased to Rs2,230.73 crore from Rs2,201.8 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Shares of Canara Bank were down 4.5 per cent in afternoon trades.

SBT 9-mth operating profit up by 10.18 per cent
Thiruvananthapuram: State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has recorded a 10.18 per cent rise in the operating profit for the nine months of the current financial year ended December 31, 2004.

The operating profit was at Rs604.58 crore as against Rs548.76 crore during the same period last year. However, the net profit declined to Rs161.21 crore (Rs170.67 crore) due to higher provisions.

The higher operating profit of the bank was driven by a 38.30 per cent increase in net interest income, which stood at Rs677.99 crore at the end of the nine-month period. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 10.51 per cent at the end of the period. The bank has augmented its tier-II capital through the issue of subordinated bonds to the tune of Rs195 crore in the first week of January this year.

The aggregate deposits grew by Rs2,013 crore to touch Rs21,540 crore. The gross advances increased by Rs1,841 crore to Rs13,692 crore and the retail advances showed a year-over-year growth of 28.98 per cent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank net at Rs19 crore
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank has recorded a net profit of Rs19.10 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2004, against Rs18.95 crore in the previous year. Bank officials ascribed the flat growth in the bank's net profit to lower earnings in treasury operations.

During the third quarter, treasury operations recorded a net loss of Rs3.60 crore against profits to the tune of Rs1.56 crore in the year-ago period. However, the retail-lending segment's profit before tax grew by 19 per cent to Rs18.40 crore (Rs.15.46 crore).

Total advances of the bank surged by 68 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs3,095 crore as on December 31, 2004, with retail loans comprising 82 per cent of the portfolio.

Advances towards commercial vehicles crossed Rs1,500 crore. Capital adequacy as on December 31, 2004 was 13.73 per cent.
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