24 August 2002

ARC likely to commence operations in two months
New Delhi: The Asset Reconstruction Company of India Ltd, promoted by SBI, ICICI Bank, IDBI and other banks, is likely to start operations in one or two months following presidential assent to the securitisation ordinance.

IBS Forex Gears Up To Offer Forward Trades
Mumbai: After the successful launch of the foreign exchange trading platform in June, IBS Forex Pvt Ltd is now preparing to introduce the countrys first forward dollar matching and trading platform by end-September.

DCA awaiting RoC report on Tata Finance issue
New Delhi: The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) on Friday said any further action on the Tata Finance Ltd (TFL) matter would be taken only after receiving the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Mumbai's report.

Canara Bank cuts home loan rates
Bangalore: Canara Bank yesterday announced revision in its housing loan rates again up to half a percentage point effective August 26.

Set the grown-ups on their own
Mumbai: The board of SBI Home Finance, which is not a subsidiary of SBI, is meeting in Kolkata shortly to finalise accounts and going by market talk it may not be pretty.

PNB Housing, United India sign MoU
New Delhi: PNB Housing Finance Ltd (PNBHF) and United India Insurance Co Ltd (UIIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for coverage of a combined fire insurance policy and personal accident policy for complete, effective and adequate services under the name `Unihome Carepolicy'

Immediate credit limit on cheques up at Rs 15,000
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has told banks to enhance the ceiling on immediate credit of outstation or local cheques, to Rs 15,000 from Rs 7,500, following recommendations from the Indian Banks' Association.

KSFC to set up panel to study film financing
Bangalore: One of the suggestions before KSFC was to evaluate the film script as a means to assess the potential to advance loans.

ICICI Bank arms' net down at Rs 1.87 cr
Mumbai: Huge losses suffered by insurance arms and a sharp drop in the profits of other individual ventures have almost wiped out the surpluses of ICICI Bank's subsidiaries during the past fiscal year.

Indians turn to real estate, gold
Mumbai: Indian households are parking less and less money in deposits, shares, bonds and other forms of financial assets, with its share in total household savings touching a five-year low of 61.77 per cent.

SEBI panel wants companies to reveal fund flow into arms
Mumbai: The Accounting Standards Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India has suggested that companies must disclose in their annual accounts details of amounts of loans given to and investment made into their subsidiaries.

23 August 2002

RBI seeks banks ops risk data in line with Basel pact
Mumbai: Headway has been made towards evolving a method to measure the operational risk across countries and the Basel Committee has asked all central banks to collect data on operational risks.

Interest spread of 26 PSU banks up 7.2% in 2001-02
Mumbai: Interest spreads of 26 public sector banks increased by 7.22 per cent to Rs 31,291 crore during 2001-02 from the level of Rs 29,184 crore during 2000-01.

Three StanChart Group MFs to sport Grindlays brand
Mumbai: Following the RBI clearance for the merger of Standard Chartered Bank with Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank effective from September 1, the Grindlays brand will be sported by three mutual fund schemes that already exist within the group.

GIC Housing not keen on securitisation
Thiruvananthapuram: GIC Housing Finance has not visited the deposit-raising market after 1999 leading to some loss in terms of "sustained presence' at the marketplace which in turn is holding it back from foraying into housing loans securitisation programme.

Banks asked to be transparent on consumer loan ads
Mumbai: Banks have been asked to refrain from advertising the financing of consumer durable by distorting facts related to interest rates. In a circular issued to commercial banks, the RBI said that some banks were providing low or zero per cent per cent interest rates on consumer durable advances to borrowers through adjustment of discount available from manufacturers or dealers of consumer goods.

SBI Life declares revisionary bonus for 3 schemes
Hyderabad: SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd has announced a revisionary bonus on the sum assured for the savings-oriented insurance products issued by the company, `Sanjeevan, Young Sanjeevan and Scholar'.

Allianz Bajaj aims at 1 lakh policies
Mumbai: Allianz Bajaj Life Insurance has sold over 50,000 individual life insurance policies in 10 months of operation. The company kicked off operations in October last.

GIC extends date for farmers' declarations
Bangalore: General Insurance Corporation (GIC) has said that it has extended the cut-off date to receive declarations from banks for non-loanee farmers in Karnataka.

`A1' retained for Escorts CP
New Delhi: Icra has revised the long-term rating of Escorts Ltd from `LA+' to `LA'. The new rating indicates adequate safety.

DCB plans to hike FDI to 49 pc
Mumbai: Development Credit Bank Ltd is considering the possibility of raising its foreign direct investment (FDI) component to 49 per cent from the current level of 37.50 per cent.

`Makharias clandestinely acquired stake in UWB'
Mumbai: The Investors' Grievances Forum (IGF) has alleged that the Makharia group, several companies of which are on the list of wilful defaulters, has "clandestinely" acquired about 17.5 per cent stake in the Satara-based United Western Bank (UWB).

Andhra Bank begins tax collection
Hyderabad: As a part of its attempts to augment non-fund based income streams, Andhra Bank has commenced a new service called collection of direct taxes. The collections include all direct taxes comprising corporate tax, estate duty, expenditure tax, gift tax, hotel receipt tax, interest on delayed remittance, income-tax, interest tax and wealth tax.

EDS deal likely with ABN-Amro
Mumbai: A.T. Kearney's parent Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) is in final contract discussions with ABN-Amro Bank N.V's wholesale banking unit for a 5-year IT-services deal that may well be worth in excess of $1.5 billion.

Classic City buys Hotel Holiday Inn
Mumbai: In execution of the decree obtained by IndusInd Bank Ltd in a recovery case against the Ram Laxman Hotels Pvt Ltd , Hotel Holiday Inn, Pune, owned by RLHL, was sold at an auction to Classic City Investments Pvt Ltd (CCPIL) for Rs 29.8 crore.

Ordinance on NPAs repromulgated
New Delhi: The President, Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, has repromulgated the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Ordinance, 2002. The Ordinance seeks to provide banks and financial institutions powers to The Ordinance seeks to provide banks and financial institutions powers to tackle the problem of non-performing assets.

IndusInd Bank-IEFL merger swap at 1:1
Mumbai: The Hindujas-promoted IndusInd Bank Ltd is merging one of its holding companies, IndusInd Enterprises & Finance Ltd, with itself at a swap ratio of one equity share of IBL for every share of IEFL.

Karnataka Bank bonus at 1:1
Bangalore: Karnataka Bank has announced the issue of fully-paid bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every one held besides offering one equity share of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 25 (premium Rs 15) on a rights basis.

UTI Tenders Almost All Its IPCL Shares
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India has tendered its entire chunk of 8.80 per cent or around 2.18 crore shares in Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd excepting around 88,000 shares held under its Nifty index schemes to the open offer made by Reliance Industries at Rs 231 per share.

Refrain from 0% interest schemes: RBI
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised banks to refrain from linking their names in any manner with an incentive-based advertisement where clarity regarding interest rate is absent.

Loan schemes that provide low or zero per cent interest rates on consumer durable advances to borrowers through adjustment of the discount available from manufacturers or dealers and lack of transparency in operations distort pricing mechanism of loan products, the RBI said in a notification to all scheduled commercial banks.

Some banks were also promoting such schemes by releasing advertisement in different newspapers and the media, indicating that they were promoting or financing consumers under such schemes, it said. These products do not give a clear picture to customers regarding the applicable interest rates, and banks should, therefore, refrain from offering such products.

The RBI said as per the 9 August 2001 circular, banks are required to charge interest on loans for purchase of consumer durables at the rate not below their prime-lending rate regardless of the size of the loan amount.