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AmEx,
Citibank to share card network
New Delhi: American Express (AmEx) and Citibank
have signed a deal for the United States market and will
soon enter into a similar agreement for the Indian market
whereby Citibank-issued credit cards in the US will be
accepted on the American Express global merchant network.
The new credit cards developed by Citibank are expected
to available by late 2005.
While
Citibank will be responsible for issuing the cards, managing
customer relationships, providing service, billing and
credit
management and designing the card product features, American
Express will process transactions on its global merchant
network. However, financial terms of the agreement are
not immediately known.
AmEx
has already established 85 card-issuing alliances in 97
countries so far. In India, the company has been issuing
its own credit and charge cards but will now operate as
a payment brand like Mastercard and Visa, the other prominent
networks.
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HSBC
group to hike investment in India
New Delhi: The HSBC
group is pumping in $50.55 million more into its India
operations. The company is setting up a wholly owned non-banking
financial company (NBFC) and will increase its holding
in two subsidiary companies from the existing 75 per cent
to 100 per cent.
The
ministry of finance has allowed HSBC Investment Bank Holding
BV (HIB BV) to inject an additional capital of $30 million
into a NBFC and sale of shares of HSBC Securities and
Capital Markets (India) Pvt Ltd (HSCI) by HIB BV to NBFC
at par value of $ 20.55 million.
The
group is in the process of incorporating NBFC in India
in
accordance with the special provisions of NBFCs under
the Companies Act, sources said.
The
group is also increasing HSBC's shareholding in HSCI and
its two subsidiaries, namely, HSBC Primary Dealership
(India) Pvt Ltd (HCPD) and HSBC Asset Management (India)
Pvt Ltd (AMIN) from 75 per cent to 100 per cent.
The
group is also planning to move ahead with its plan for
the
redemption of preference shares worth Rs25 crore issued
by HSCI. Official sources said the proposed NBFC has also
been permitted to set up other subsidiaries in the financial
services segment as may be required from time to time
for carrying out its activities.
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ING
Vysya looks at private banking
Pune: ING
Vysya Bank is launching private banking operations
in Pune and is planning to set up an office within a few
months to offer wealth management services to high net
worth individuals.
The
bank, which has a portfolio of an estimated 500-600 high
net worth clients to whom it offers private banking services,
is also firming up plans to start private banking operations
in Hyderabad and Chennai before the end of 2005.
The
bank feels that high net worth individuals are looking
for wealth management services and an entire gamut of
investment options is available to them.
The
bank is looking at coming out with a mutual fund with
exposure to art collections.
The
bank has been sponsoring art events with a number of art
galleries and buying art at these events for over a year
now.
ING
Vysya will sponsor the first of a series of art lectures
that will
take place under the Pune Art Show umbrella.
Meanwhile,
ING Vysya is also looking at other emerging investment
opportunities in India, especially real estate.
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Oriental
Bank offers mobile top-ups
New Delhi: The Oriental
Bank of Commerce (OBC) has launched mobile recharge
facilities at its network of 500 ATMs.
Recharge
facilities are available of all operators at these ATMs,
including Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Reliance India Mobile,
Tata Indicom,
BSNL_Excel, BPL Mobile, Orange, Spice and MTNL-Trump.
Recharge facilities would also be available for ISD and
STD calling cards offered through 'Oxigen' service.
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Saraswat
to take over Maratha Mandir Bank
Mumbai: The Mumbai-based Saraswat
Co-operative Bank is taking over the problem-stricken
Maharashtra-based Maratha Mandir Co-operative Bank.
The
technical committee of the RBI, which met a few days ago,
cleared the takeover proposals.
Both
Saraswat and another cooperative bank, Cosmos Co-operative
Bank, had pitched hard to acquire Maratha Mandir to take
advantage of its huge branch network. Maratha Mandir has
12 branches in Maharashtra of which 11 branches are in
Mumbai, and one on the Konkan coast in Chiplun.
Over
the last two years, the RBI has stopped issuing branch
licences to co-operative banks, after the unbridled growth
of co-operative banks during the last decade.
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