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Bank mergers up
Canara Bank merges 4 RRBs in Karnataka
Bangalore: Canara Bank has merged the Tungabhadra Gramin Bank, Chitradurga Gramin Bank, Kolar Gramin Bank and the Sahyadri Gramin Bank in its fold and created the Pragathi Gramin Bank starting next month.

The consolidated bank would have a deposit base of Rs 1,338 crore and advances of Rs 1,298 crore.

The management control of the bank would continue to be vested with Canara Bank.

Syndicate Bank
Syndicate Bank has also merged four regional rural banks in its fold, which include the Malaprabha Grameena Bank, Bijapur Grameena Bank, Nethravathi Grameena Bank and Varada Grameena Bank in its fold as the first step of consolidation.

The merged entity would be called Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank.

The banks currently have a combined business turnover (deposits plus advances) of Rs 3,000 crore.

The merged entity would now have 387 branches and would be head quartered in Dharwad, Karnataka.
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Rupee firmer; securities down
Mumbai: The rupee opened lower against the dollar at 43.94/95 and stayed at those levels.

When news came in that China was widening the yuan's trading range the rupee recovered to end trade at 43.90/91, a bit higher than the previous close of 43.92/9250.

China widened the yuan's trading band against non-dollar currencies to 3 per cent from 1.5 per cent. Dealers said this would not affect the rupee much.

Forwards Market: In the forward premia market, the 6-month premium closed at 0.84 per cent (0.87 per cent) and the 12-month premium ended at 0.81 (0.78 per cent).

Bonds; Prices fell in the bond market for a major part of the day on higher inflation and tightness in call rates. However, the yuan news and fall in prices brought in fresh buying, which pushed prices up.

G-Secs: The 10.25-16 year-2021 paper opened at Rs 126.21 (7.4 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs 125.98 (7.42 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs 126.13 (7.40 per cent YTM).

The 7.37-9 year-2014 paper opened at Rs 102.54 (6.99 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs 102.45 (6.98 per cent YTM), slightly lower than Thursday's close of Rs 102.50. (6.98 per cent YTM). The 7.55-5 year 2010 paper opened at Rs 103.76 (6.59 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs 103.73 (6.6 per cent YTM).

Call Rates: The inter-bank call rate was at 5.25 per cent --5.3 per cent, but closed at 5.10-5.20 per cent (5.10-5.15 per cent).

Reverse Rep: In the one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received and accepted 21 bids amounting to Rs 9,725 crore.

CBLO market: 258 trades for Rs 11,544 crore in the rate range of 4.75-5.15 per cent.
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IDBI to set up info kiosks with trading facility
Mumbai: IDBI is planning to set up information kiosks with trading facility, to allow customers to check their balance, transfer funds within the bank and even pay utility bills.

These kiosks can be accessed either by using the debit card or ATM card.

For corporate clients, IDBI will be issuing Enquiry Cards, using which the corporates can take out their statements of accounts.

Starting from the first week of October the bank will set up over 100 kiosks. The investment for this project is less than Rs 5 crore.

The bank is also planning to open unmanned branches within two months and is investing Rs 56 crore in setting up a new data centre at Belapur, Navi Mumbai, and a disaster recovery site in Chennai.
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Canara Bank to issue bonds to raise Rs 500 cr
Mumbai: Canara Bank has released a Tier-II fixed coupon bond issue, to raise Rs 500 crore. The interest rate is 7.4 per cent with a tenor of 115 months.

The bank is raising the capital to shore up its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in line with Basel II norms, said a senior official from the bank.

The bank's current CAR is 12.51 per cent.
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Fin Min gives banks, coops more time to file quarterly returns of deposits
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has again extended the date for filing of quarterly return (by banks, co-operative societies and certain public companies) of all deposits on which interest is paid without deduction of tax at source.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has extended the due date for filing the quarterly return that was to be filed for the April-June 2005 period to December 31. The initial deadline for filing the return was July 31, but was later extended to September 30.

Similarly, the Finance Ministry has also extended the due date for filing the quarterly return for the July-September period to December 31.

As an anti-tax evasion measure, the government had, through the Finance Act 2005, required banks and certain other entities to report to the Government all deposits that were exempt from tax deduction at source (TDS) on interest.
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SBI Life comes up with two new products
Indore: To tap the growing insurance market SBI Life Insurance is introducing two new products `Dhanvriddhi' and `SBI Life Unit Plus' during the Durga Puja festival and Diwali.

SBI Life manages a portflio of more than 30 lakh lives, which is the largest amongst all private insurance companies in India.

The company has set an ambitious target of Rs 1,000 crore of total business premium for the current financial year of which, the company has already achieved Rs 240 crore hopes to cross the Rs 250 crore mark by the Sepetember end.
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