SBI offers co-branded credit card with Railways
New Delhi: SBI cards and the Indian Railways have tied up to launch a co-branded credit card and traveller loyalty card to tap the huge railway passengers market through bonanzas to customers each time they log on to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Web site to buy tickets. The membership fee for the card branded 'SBI Railway Card' is
Rs500 for the first year and the customer gets 250 free bonus railway points and a complimentary free membership to the loyal customer programme christened 'Shubh Yatra.'

"The charges on the SBI Railway Card will vary from Rs300 to
Rs500 in the subsequent years," said SBI Card CEO, Roopam Asthana.

He said the benefits under the card are much more as there will be no surcharge on buying tickets online that normally other credit cards will attract. The Railway card can be used as a normal credit card and earn railway points. The travellers, who do not want the credit card, can opt for 'Shubh Yatra' scheme with a membership fee Rs500 in the first year and Rs300 in the subsequent years.

'Shubh Yatra,' is applicable only for tickets booked online at www.irctc.co.in. The members can get 10 per cent of their ticket fare as railway points on all AC class travel (excluding 3AC), which can be used to buy a free rail ticket after earning the required number of points.

However, the offer is riddled with a number of conditions that consumers need to check out. These include getting 10 per cent as points if the ticket is bought during the slack season from January 15 to March 31 or from July 15 to September 15 and for the remainder of the year they get four per cent of fare as rail points.
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Kotak Prime buys retail auto finance unit from Ford Credit
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank's subsidiary Kotak Mahindra Prime (KMP) has acquired the entire retail auto finance portfolio from Ford Credit Kotak Mahindra. Henceforth KMP would finance retail purchases of Ford as well as non-Ford cars, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Ford Credit Kotak Mahindra is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Credit International, it added.
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DCB files red herring prospectus with SEBI
Mumbai: Development Credit Bank (DCB) has filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its forthcoming initial public offering.

The bank promoted by Switzerland-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development proposes to offer a Rs300 crore issue through book building route, the bank said in a release here. The bank has proposed that two million equity shares should be reserved for allotment to eligible employees of the bank.

Of the net offer to the public, 50 per cent is reserved for allotment to qualified institutional buyers of which five per cent is reserved for allotment to mutual funds, it said.

In addition, 15 per cent has been reserved for allotment to non-institutional investors and the balance 35 per cent has been reserved to allotment for retail investors, the release said.

J M Morgan Stanley and Enam Financial Consultants are the lead managers to the issue while Intime Spectrum Registry Ltd is the registrar to the issue.
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ICICI Bank in pact with BayernLB
Mumbai: ICICI Bank and BayernLB, one of the largest banks in Germany, have entered into a pact whereby the two will provide reciprocal support in areas including treasury, capital markets, syndicated loans and trade finance to their respective customers.

The agreement will leverage the strengths of ICICI Bank to facilitate the global aspirations of Indian corporates said ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive officer, M V Kamath.

BayernLB chairman, Werner Schmidt said that the co-operation would further intensify and develop business relations of the two partners.
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Allahabad Bank signs MoU with SMERA
Kolkata: Allahabad Bank has entered into a memorandum of understanding with SMERA for augmenting credit flow to the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. SMERA has been formed by agencies like SIDBI, Dun & Bradstreet, CIBIL and several leading banks of the country.

According to the chairman and managing director of Allahabad Bank, O N Singh, the bank is targeting to disburse Rs3,000 crore to the SME sector during the current financial year which is almost Rs700 crore than the previous financial year, he said.

Allahabad Bank is the second city-based bank after UCO to sign an agreement with SMERA.

SMERA, formed for rating units in the SME sector, has already tied up with 12 banks for this purpose. He said that the bank has formulated a policy on debt restructuring and one-time settlement of SME borrowers facing difficulty in market competition.
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SBI to review loan rates post budget
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) will review lending rates only after the Budget according to the bank's managing director, T S Bhattacharya.

SBI chairman, A K Purwar, recently said the bank would take a decision on lending rates soon since there was a pressure on liquidity. The Reserve Bank of India, in its quarterly review of the annual policy in January, increased the repo rates following which, banks had started revising lending rates.

HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have recently hiked retail lending rates, particularly home loans.
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Corporation Bank plans to raise Rs500 crore
Mumbai: Corporation Bank plans to raise Rs 500 crore as Tier II capital in one or more tranches.

The company in its board meeting has decided to raise resources by issue of infrastructure bonds worth Rs1,000 crore in one or more tranches, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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GE Money keen to enter banking sector
New Delhi: US financial major GE Money wants to enter the banking sector in India and is currently carrying out a feasibility study on "routes" to be adopted before approaching Reserve Bank for approval.

Vishal Pandit GE Money CEO and president (India) said, "We are carrying out a feasibility study on routes to be adopted to start banking operations in India. Once the report is submitted, we will work it out with regulator RBI," he said.

He said the company was also studying the acquisition route as under the present RBI norms, a foreign company can acquire a stressed private bank in India, though there are no clear-cut definitions of stressed bank.
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