SBI delivers bad news on real estate bad loans
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) chairman OP Bhatt delivered some bad news saying that bad loans to builders and homebuyers were on the rise. According to Bhatt, bad loans may boil over to other segments as well.

Speaking on the sideline of a banking seminar, Bhatt said that SBI's non-performing assets (NPAs) in the home loan segment would be around 3-4%, which would work out to Rs1,140-1,1520 crore on the bank's loan portfolio of Rs38,000 crore.

"NPA will continue to mount not only in these segment, but will also spread in other segments like small and medium enterprises (SME) due to contingent effect. They are paying a very high price in terms of interest rates," said the SBI chief.
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MetLife's premiums in first year rise 141 pc
Bangalore: MetLife India Insurance Company's premiums in 2006-07 the first year of its operations have grown by 141 per cent to Rs350 crore.

The company officials said bancassurance contributed substantially to its premium accretions. The growth was highest during the fourth quarter when first year premiums grew by 166 per cent to Rs173 crore. At least 80 per cent of the premium accretions came from the unit-linked insurance plans (ULIP). The remaining was from conventional term and savings linked plans.

However, they said MetLife would still require capital to sustain the growth momentum in the country and the board of the company was meeting next month to assess the capital requirements. MetLife is a joint venture between MetLife International Holdings of the US, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Pallonji & Co and a group of private investors. MetLife International is a 26 per cent stakeholder in the joint venture.
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Forex reserves rise $789 m to touch $203-bn
Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $789 million to touch $203.881 billion in the week ended April 20, due to the revaluation effect. The forex kitty had seen an accretion of $2.772 billion to $203.092 billion in the previous week. According to the RBI's Weekly Statistical Supplement, foreign currency assets during the week ended April 20 increased by $788 million to $196.632 billion. Foreign currency assets, as expressed in dollars, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation in non-US currencies (euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves.
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