15 mar 2003

ministry to meet rbi on epf rate cuts
new delhi: under increasing pressure to cut interest rates on employees provident fund, the labour ministry is expected to meet shortly the rbi brass in a bid to retain the current rate of 9.5 per cent

reinsurance turns a tough pitch
new delhi: domestic general insurance companies have failed to finalise their treaty arrangements with reinsurance companies within the deadline set by the insurance regulatory and development authority (irda).

sbi ties up with maruti for car loans
chennai: state bank of india has tied-up with maruti udyog ltd to offer car loans for maruti cars. the two organisations will be able to utilise each other's customer base as well as distribution network,to cross-sell maruti vehicles and sbi vehicle loans.

14 mar 2003

banks see tough days ahead for sfc bonds
new delhi: state financial corporations are unlikely to raise as much funds as they had expected this time around as most banks, particularly public sector ones, have decided not to subscribe to bond issues liberally even as such investments qualify for meeting statutory liquidity ratio norms.

offer to turn us-64 into bonds opens tomorrow
mumbai: the option to holders of us-64 certificates to convert their holdings into tax-free bonds in lieu of the units would be on offer from march 15. however, the bonds will be issued in may.

panel for inclusion of states’ guarantee obligations in budget
new delhi: the state finance secretaries’ panel, appointed by rbi to assess risk of state government guarantees, has suggested that provision for repayment of such guarantees should be made in the budget (state) itself, as a large number of state government guarantees are effectively in the nature of debt.

investment cap on tax-free saving bonds removed
new delhi: the finance ministry has removed the investment ceiling on tax-free saving bonds. the bonds will have a maturity of 5 years and carry an interest rate of 6.5 per cent per anum payable half yearly. the scheme commences from march 24, 2003.

aon global gets licence for broking
new delhi: aon global insurance services private ltd (agispl) has received its composite insurance broking licence from the insurance regulatory and development authority of india.

forex-re options to hedge risks allowed
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has decided to introduce foreign currency-rupee options for hedging currency exposures in the forex markets.

united india to vend vanillas via banks
chennai: the united india insurance company ltd, one of the four public sector non-life insurance majors headquartered at chennai, has decided to out-licence its vanilla products to various banks across the country.

s&p upgrades tata engg to stable
new delhi: standard & poor's ratings services has revised the outlook on its `bb-' rating for tata engineering, to stable from negative.

andhra bank pact with united india
hyderabad: andhra bank has announced that it has received the licence of the insurance regulatory and development authority (irda) to act as a corporate agent for procuring or soliciting insurance business of united indian insurance company.

rabo india gets $25 m from parent
new delhi: rabobank nederland has injected fresh capital of $25 million into
indian subsidiary rabo india. with this, the current shareholding in the indian venture as gone up to 100 per cent from the earlier 75 per cent.

govt to issue 6.5 per cent tax-free savings bonds
new delhi: the government on thursday announced the decision to launch 6.5 per cent tax-free savings bonds (2003) with effect from march 24.

icici bank bonds sale
mumbai: icici bank is launching a retail issue of bonds, including a tax-saving one, on march 15. the bank has, however, pared the interest rate on the bonds - tax-saving and regular income - to 6.75 per cent.

13 mar 2003

dollar share in indian banks’ global assets down 2 percent: rbi
mumbai: the share of dollar in the international assets of banks in india has come down by over two per cent by september 30, 2002, compared to the previous quarter, though it has remained the largest component of such assets.

sundaram home fin taps nhb for rs 100-crore refinance
chennai: sundaram home finance ltd, the housing finance arm of the chennai-based non-banking finance company sundaram finance ltd, has approached the national housing bank for a rs 100-crore refinance facility.

mardia chem asked to file counter-claim against icici bank
ahmedabad: the gujarat high court has directed the ahmedabad-based mardia chemicals limited to file a counter claim against icici bank in the debt recovery tribunal in mumbai within four weeks.

turnover value of 34 banks on bse, nse rises in february
mumbai: the turnover value of 35 banks, which has listed on the stock exchange, mumbai, increased from the level of rs 1,882.84 crore during january 2003 to the level of rs 2,324.06 crore during february 2003.

centre to limit players in arc biz
mumbai: three companies - promoted by icici bank, ifci ltd and another mumbai-based financial sector player - have so far filed applications with rbi for registration as asset reconstruction companies, it is reliably learnt

sbi keen to exit from stcil
mumbai: the managing director of stcil, r.v. joshi, confirmed sbi's view. "we know they want to exit... but there is no definite timeline", he said.

dewan housing cuts lending rates
mumbai: dewan housing finance corporation has brought down its interest rate on housing loans by 150 basis points, to 9.25 per cent (for five years) under its variable monthly scheme.

mahavir spinning ncd gets `aa-'
mumbai: the rating agency, crisil has awarded `aa-' rating to the rs 80-crore non-convertible debenture (ncd) issue of the ludhiana-based vardhman group's mahavir spinning mills ltd.

holiday for clearing house in mumbai
mumbai: the reserve bank of india (rbi) has said that the clearing house in mumbai will not function on march 14 as the government of maharashtra has declared holiday on account of moharrum.

ubi mite to pm's relief fund
new delhi: union bank of india (ubi) has presented a cheque of rs 2 crore to the prime minister's relief fund. the cheque was presented to the prime minister, atal behari vajpayee, by the bank's chairman and managing director

banking secrecy laws to be eased
new delhi: lenders will soon have a bedfellow to share their disturbing secrets. sheddingits long-standing allergy towards allowing lenders to make credit information available more freely, the government is finally set to relax banking secrecy laws to allow banks and financial institutions (fis) to share details of their borrowal accounts with the credit information bureau of india ltd (cibil).

four-day repo auction today
mumbai: the reserve bank of india will hold four-day repo and reverse repo auctions on march 13. the change has been brought about consequent to the government of maharashtra declaring march 14 as holiday, in place of march 15, on account of the last day of moharrum under the negotiable instruments act, 1881, said an rbi press release.

12 mar 2003

federal bank plans acquisitions from 2004-2005, to hike car
new delhi: federal bank, one of the old generation private sector commercial banks, has decided to go for acquisition of other banks from 2004-05.

ifc to sanction rs 60 crore loan for dewan housing fin
new delhi: the board of international finance corporation (ifc), the private financing arm of the world bank, has approved the sanctioning of a rs 60 crore long-term assistance facility to dewan housing finance corporation ltd, to expand the latter's housing finance operations in the country.

united india consortium receives ongc account
mumbai: the public sector united india insurance company ltd, along with a consortium of other three public sector insurers, has bagged the mandate for underwriting the oil and natural gas corporation's $14 billion (approximately rs 70,000 crore) on-shore and off-shore assets.

last tranche of kerala loan issue today
mumbai: the reserve bank of india will raise the last tranche of kerala development loan for 2002-2003 on wednesday through tap issue. this is for debt-swap with the government of india, a state government release here said.

a.v. birla group open to banking foray
mumbai: the a v birla group will consider a foray into banking if the regulatory environment becomes friendlier.

banks told to follow norms on forex revaluation
mumbai: the reserve bank of india (rbi) has directed commercial banks to comply with its norms on reporting revaluation of foreign currency assets and liabilities.

corpn bank upbeat on home loans
mangalore: corporation bank, which has been aggressively marketing its housing loan products in the past few years, is all set to reach its targeted growth of 140 per cent in the disbursal of home loans during the current fiscal year.

kotak mahindra gets rbi okay for bank posts
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has approved the appointment of the top posts in the new private sector kotak mahindra bank. the bank is expected to start operations before march 31.

new directors for andhra bank
hyderabad: andhra bank informed the stock exchanges on tuesday that its shareholders at their extraordinary general meeting (egm) held on march 10 had elected four directors.

11 mar 2003

cdr panel okays oswal chem rs 2,300-cr debt restructuring
new delhi: the empowered committee of the corporate debt restructuring (cdr) mechanism, which met last week, has decided to give a lifeline to the beleaguered uttar pradesh-based oswal chemicals & fertilizers ltd by preparing a tentative restructuring package for its debt of over rs 2,300-crore.

crucial meeting on sbi’s forex job division today
mumbai: the country’s biggest public sector commercial bank, state bank of india, has convened a crucial meeting on tuesday to settle the continuing and controversial issue of equal distribution of forex operations between the bank’s kolkata and mumbai offices.

tata aig targets village slice of $50-bn life insurance pie
mumbai: tata aig life insurance has started eyeing the village slice of the insurance pie, especially in the south. the company has not merely crossed the stipulated minimum of five per cent in rural programmes, but has more than doubled it, according to ian j watts, country head, tata aig life insurance.

icici-pru rejigs 3 life products for more flexibility
new delhi: icici prudential life insurance on monday revamped its lifelink, lifelink pension and smartkid products to make them more flexible.

boi to network 450 more branches
mumbai: bank of india will be networking 450 new branches to its existing fully connected network of 275 branches, according to d. krishnamurthy, general manager, information technology (it).

lic ernakulam division crosses rs 100-cr mark
kochi: the ernakulam division of the life insurance corporation of india has crossed the first premium mark of rs 100 crore in the current fiscal and thus became one among the top 10 divisions in the country in business volumes.

indian bank seeks to expand nri clientele
abu dhabi: indian bank is seeking to expand its nri client base and reassure its nri customers regarding the future, following the bank's good performance in the past year, according to ranjana kumar, chairperson and managing director of indian bank.

note-to-coin changer at mumbai cst
mumbai: a note-to-coin changer machine was installed by union bank of india at the chatrapati shivaji terminus railway station in mumbai on monday.

state finance corpn may not meet npa recovery target
new delhi: the corporation proposes to set up an asset reconstruction company to manage the non-performing assets as well as add new business through securitisation of npas from banks and other financial institutions.

10 mar 2003

high-yield bonds for us-64 punters, may be tradeable
new delhi: the government has decided to offer two types of bonds, including an 8 per cent taxable paper, to us-64 investors who do not want to encash units when they come up for redemption in may 2003. those who want cash will receive rs 12 per unit for up to 5,000 units.

lic to withdraw three schemes by march
coimbatore: facing strain in continuing with high assured return schemes in a falling interest rate regime, lic plans to withdraw at least three schemes - new jeevan shree, bima nivesh and bal vidya - by the end of the month.

national insurance, allahabad bank join hands
new delhi: two major public sector players, national insurance company ltd and allahabad bank, signed an agreement on saturday for bancassurance in the presence of a.v adsul, union minister of state for finance.


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