Rupee gains
Mumbai: The rupee strengthened by almost 11 paise on Thursday mainly due to strong FII inflows into the domestic equity markets. The Indian currency opened at 44.73 and closed at 44.69, against the previous close of 44.80 on Tuesday. In forwards, the six-month premium closed at 1.94 per cent (1.97 per cent) and the one-year closed at 1.80 per cent (1.82 per cent). Bonds: Bond prices rose during the day but profit booking reduced some of the gains by the close.

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs 101 (7.44 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.92 (7.41 per cent YTM), up from Wednesday's Rs100.85 (7.46 per cent YTM). The 8.07-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs104.75 (7.39 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs104.62 (7.41 per cent YTM), higher than Wednesday's Rs104.58 (7.42 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates ruled low between 6.1 per cent and 6.2 per cent as against 6.25 and 6.35 per cent on Wednesday. In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted seven bids for Rs6,555 crore. There were no repo bids. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI accepted and received 24 bids for Rs16,875 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 334 trades aggregating to Rs18,686.10 crore in the 6-6.4 per cent range.
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SBI starts online trading
Mumbai: SBI has started its online trading facility, eZ@sbi account, with Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd (MOSL). It is a three-in-one account. Customers have to open a demat account and the savings or current account with SBI and the trading account will be with MOSL.

The facility will be offered in 10 branches in Mumbai to begin with and by March 31, 2007, it will be extended to 350 branches across the country, which offer demat facility. In the third phase, the bank will offer additional services like selling IPOs, mutual funds and postal products. The bank will waive account maintenance charges for customers who open eZ@sbi accounts up to March 31, 2007. The bank has 65,000 demat clients and is targeting 1, 50,000 clients for the eZ@sbi account.
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HSBC pushes case for modern property registration system
Kolkata: HSBC is making a case for the need to institute a modern system of property registration in West Bengal State. Top officials of the bank recently met the chief minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, and made a strong case for an online registry mechanism. HSBC officials said the an online system would help in rooting out cases of fraud. The bank, which said the Chief Minister reacted to the suggestion favourably, will follow up its meeting with a special note to the Government on the subject.

The bank, which has over 24,000 personnel on its rolls, employs about 550 people in Kolkata. On the offshore business side, it engages about 2,000 people, a number that may be increased by 2,000 or so.
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PNB to foray into credit cards
New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) plans to launch its own credit card by March next year and would soon invite expression of interest (EOI) for a joint venture partner in the proposed credit card venture. Currently, PNB has a co-branding tie-up with HSBC in which the latter is the card issuer and plays the dominant role. PNB may withdraw from this tie-up as soon as the joint venture company takes off.

The bank has signed up Ernst & Young, who will help it identify the joint venture partner. PNB has recently been on a product launch binge to retain customers and ensure that all financial products are available under one roof.
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75 pc of banks not ready for Basel II: KPMG
Chennai: According to a survey undertaken by management consulting firm KPMG approximately 75 per cent of the banks have not specifically budgeted funds for their Basel II programme. Nine out of ten banks surveyed believed that successful implementation of Basel II will not only result in better compliance but will also improve efficiency of capital management, enhance shareholder value and lead to improved management of their operational risks.

According to the report by KPMG titled `India: Ready for Basel II' banks are confident in their ability to meet the RBI guidelines for achieving `the standardised approach for credit risk' and `the basic indicator approach' in respect of `operational risk'. KPMG cautions banks lagging behind to devote considerable resources in this area so that they can address the necessary requirements of the RBI, given the impending timelines for implementation of the Basel II norms. 89 per cent of the banks surveyed have a `dedicated team' responsible for Basel II implementation. But, "very few banks have established the position of chief risk officer with a reporting line to the CEO/Board and whose role has been defined with sufficient clarity. The survey found that technology preparedness is less evident in the management of operational risks, compared to credit and market risk management.
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ICICI Bank signs pact with Canadian agency
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with Export Development Canada (EDC), a Canadian export credit agency, for financing support to Indian buyers of capital goods and professional services from Canada.

The bank has a subsidiary in Canada (ICICI Bank Canada) with five branches.
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