Irda cuts waiting time for life risk firms
Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (Irda) has cut the waiting period for life insurance companies for offering products.

As per the existing procedure, after filing of the products, life insurers can use the product only if they do not hear anything from the Irda within 30 days from the date of receipt of application.

The cut in waiting period means that if insurers do not hear from Irda within 15 days from the date of receipt of application, insurers can offer sale of such products.
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Provisioning hike to impact SBI, ICICI profitability in Q4
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank are likely to take a hit in profitability in the fourth quarter because of enhanced provisioning on standard loans in certain sectors.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Jan 31 hiked the provisioning for standard loans given to commercial real estate and capital market players and to consumers, including credit cards, to 2 per cent from 1 per cent.

The higher provisioning requirement is likely to result in SBI and ICICI Bank having to make additional provisioning of around Rs 300 crore based on their respective exposures to the targeted sectors.

Taking into account the Rs 41,870 crore exposure of 13 major banks to commercial real estate and capital market as on March 31, 2006, the aggregate provisioning on account of these two sectors alone would amount to about Rs900 crore.

The banks had a total exposure of Rs29,638 crore to real estate, of Rs42,178 crore of the entire sector at the end of March 31, 2006.

The capital market exposure of the 13 banks was Rs12,231 crore out of the total sector's exposure of Rs19,712 crore at the end of March 31, 2006.

These banks include Punjab National Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, UTI Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India and Jammu & Kashmir Bank.
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Rupee rises to one-year high
Mumbai: After the central bank on Jan 31 raised the rate at which it lends funds to banks to curb inflation fuelled by loan growth, traders began selling dollars for rupees, which they need for lending amid record economic expansion. The dollar fell against 11 of the 15 most actively-traded Asia Pacific currencies today, according to Bloomberg data.

The rupee rose 0.2 per cent to 44.12 against the dollar as of the 5 pm yesterday in Mumbai. The traded volume was less than a fifth of the average daily amount.

The bond markets were shut today because of local council elections in Mumbai, the financial centre of the country.
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