Kerala Govt. to issue bonds of Rs.300 crore
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government is set to borrow Rs300 crore from the market for development activities in the State. The public auction of bonds will be held on April 20 at the Mumbai office of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The bonds, with tenure of 10 years, will be redeemed on April 21, 2015, with the interest payable twice a year on April 21 and October 21, according to an official release.
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Nadars mull offloading ten per cent stake in Tamilnad Mercantile
Chennai: The Nadar community proposes to offload ten per cent of the equity held by its members in Tamilnad Mercantile Bank to domestic or overseas investors, in order to raise money to pay off C. Sivasankaran of the Sterling group.

Last April, the members of the community struck a deal with Sivasankaran who then held 33 per cent of the bank's equity.

Under the agreement, Sivasankaran was to transfer the 33 per cent stake to seven named members of the community, for a consideration of Rs130 crore. The shares were to be pledged back to Sivasankaran until the money was paid.

Another 34 per cent of the bank stake had previously been transferred to some 25,000 members of the community.

Meanwhile, officials of the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank said that the bank's business had crossed Rs7,650 crore as of March 31, 2005. Net worth rose beyond Rs500 crore, taking the capital adequacy ratio to above 18 per cent. Credit increased by 24 per cent.

The bank's Chairman, S. Radhakrishnan, said that the bank had an investment portfolio of Rs2,200 crore, consisting mostly of high yielding securities, giving an average yield of over 11 per cent. The bank had neither sold nor shifted securities to 'held to maturity' category, because its holdings had not suffered much depreciation, he said.
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Bajaj Allianz in bancassurance tie up with Jankalyan Sahkari bank
Mumbai: Bajaj Allianz has tied up with the Janakalyan Sahakari Bank, a scheduled urban co-operative bank, for bancassurance on a referral basis. As per the arrangement, Janakalyan Sahakari Bank will distribute Bajaj Allianz's life insurance products through its branches.

The bank has a network of 25 branches in Mumbai and its suburbs Thane, Vashi and Panvel. Its area of operation covers entire Maharashtra.
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UTI Bank offers new scheme for women depositors
Mumbai: UTI Bank will offer a special deposit scheme for women, called the Smart Privilege account, which will come with features such as an international debit card, personal accident insurance cover up to Rs2 lakh and free minor account for children.

UTI Bank had recently launched Smart Privilege, a savings bank account designed for women. UTI Bank says that the idea is to help women overcome the fear of managing their own wealth.

According to the bank, eventually they would want to graduate women account holders from managing just an account to managing their own money. For this, along with the Smart Privilege, the bank also offers facilities such as Systematic Investment Plans to invest in equity or mutual funds and investor advice.

As per the statistics from the Ministry of Finance, 19 public sector banks (PSBs), out of 27, had achieved the target of providing five per cent of their loans to women by March 2004.

Out of the remaining eight PSBs, Oriental Bank of Commerce met the target by September 2004, while State Bank of India, State Bank of Saurashtra and Central Bank of India met the target by December 2004.
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