24 may 2003

foreign banks setting up obus in sezs not to get i-t benefits
new delhi: the government has denied branches of foreign banks operating in india the benefit of tax exemption under section 80la of the income-tax act, 1961, and the facility to make investment overseas. this is expected to 'discourage' them from setting up overseas banking units (obus) in special economic zones (sezs). a commerce ministry proposal for granting banks this exemption has been shot down by the finance ministry. however, eight applications from indian banks to establish obus have been approved so far with 24 more expected next month. of those cleared, four are from the state bank of india and one each from the central bank of india, punjab national bank, icici bank and oriental bank of commerce. one of the obus will be located in the sez coming up in indore (mp).

iob net at rs 416 crore
new delhi: indian overseas bank (iob) has clocked a net profit of rs 416.10 crore in 2002-03, against rs 230.21 crore earned in the previous fiscal. it would take a decision on the timing and premium for its rs 100-crore initial public offer (ipo) by the end of july, chairman and managing director sc gupta said. the bank also proposes to return rs 50-70 crore to the government so that servicing costs can be reduced, but the plans are at a very preliminary stage, he added. the government at present owns 75 per cent of the bank's equity at present. regarding the government's decision to buy back high-cost securities from banks, he said iob held rs 843 worth of g-secs in 19 of the identified 24 categories. in case it were to dispose of them all, it would stand to gain about rs 225 crore. however, it would finalise its response in about a week.

bank of maharashtra prefers compromise deals on npas
hyderabad: bank of maharashtra (bom), the rs 28,500-crore public sector bank that is planning to tap the capital market shortly with its initial public offer, is not keen on taking advantage of the securitisation act and attach the assets of its defaulters for early recoveries. the bank is of the view that it does not have adequate expertise in managing or disposing of those attached assets to recover its dues from the defaulters. instead, it prefers to utilise the provisions of the securitisation act to bring its defaulters to the negotiations table and execute compromise deals towards early recovery of non-performing assets, the bom chairman and managing director, sukmal chandra basu, said.

irda seeks more penal powers
new delhi: the insurance regulatory and development authority (irda) has sought more powers since existing penalties that can be levied on offenders are "paltry". an appellate forum to redress appeals against the authorities is also being considered.
speaking to newspersons, n. rangachary, chairman, irda, said: "what, perhaps, the insurance act of 1938 lacks is sufficient penal machinery to take action against defaulters." currently, penalties are very low and insignificant, ranging between rs 100 and rs 1,000, depending on the nature of the offences.

iob plans second public issue in sept
new delhi: indian overseas bank (iob) will be hitting the capital market around september with its second public issue of equity shares, aggregating rs 100 crore. the issue would result in pruning the government holding in the bank to 61 per cent from the present 75 per cent. iob had come out with its initial public offer (ipo) in september 2000. at a press conference here on friday, the iob chairman and managing director, s.c. gupta, said the details of the issue would be finalised by end-june. he said going by the share's current market price, which is hovering around rs 24, he would expect the premium to be around rs 10 on a share of rs 10 face value.

sidbi sanctions up 21 pc
mumbai: even as long term re-finance has become redundant in a soft interest rate regime, small industries development bank of india (sidbi) for the financial year ended march 31, 2003 grew its aggregate sanctions by 20.8 per cent to rs 10,904 crore from rs 9,025 crore in the previous year. the refinance institution has declared a dividend of 10 per cent. the growth in disbursements is mainly attributed to the introduction of short-term loans with tenors between 6 and 12 months at 6.75 per cent. however, the long-term refinance for above rs 2 lakh at 10.25 per cent finds no takers in today's falling interest rate regime.

rbi fiat on currency handling
chennai: the reserve bank of india on friday exhorted banks to speed up currency handling automation. at a meeting with the top brass of the south-based public sector banks, rbi's deputy governor, vepa kamesam, told the banks to quickly install enough of `currency verification and processing systems' and `notes banding, bundling and counting machines'. this is in furtherance of rbi's `clean note policy'. the rbi's regional director (south), b. ghosh, said that since september 2001, when rbi began large scale lifting of soiled notes, in tamil nadu and pondicherry alone 2.3 billion pieces of notes were destroyed.

banks told to take over currency chests
chennai: banks have been asked to take over the currency chests which are at present managed by the various state government treasuries, sources in the rbi said on friday. this, it is understood, is part of the rbi's `clean note policy'.
sources said that there were 311 currency chests with the banks in the southern region (the four southern states) and 65 more with state governments' treasuries. actually, there were 90 currency chests with the state governments, but recently the state bank of india took over 25 of them.

23 may 2003

stern spots 3 focus issues to achieve 8 per cent gdp growth
bangalore: world bank chief economist nicholas stern has said that india's increasing public debt may hamper the country's goal of achieving eight per cent gdp growth in the tenth plan period by squeezing out investments. making his presentation on 'opportunities for india in a changing world' on the second day of the three-day world bank's annual bank conference on development economics (abcde) on thursday, stern said india needs to hasten the reform process to reach the targeted eight per cent growth rate. stern also said that rich countries should back their pledges to help reduce poverty by removing trade barriers on exports from developing countries and increase aid. rich nations should "ease trade restrictions, increase aid flows to countries engaged in fundamental reforms and support enhanced capital flows to developing countries", he said.

abn amro to offer home loans
kolkata: dutch banking major abn amro will take two major initiatives in 2003. first, it will launch its housing loan business. second, its newly formed asset management company will offer a public issue. the announcements were made by ramesh sobti, executive vice-president and country representative of abn amro bank nv (india), at a press conference here. he was in the city for the opening of abn amro's new branch which has a ``bancafe''.

time to review fci funding norms
mumbai: the first moves to alter the style and substance of bankrolling the food corporation of india have been made with the reserve bank of india and the finance ministry setting up teams to look into details. perhaps, the best way to trim the financial load on banks is to get over the habit of a yearly mark-up in minimum support prices for rice and wheat. this has distorted price trends; but bankers know it will not happen as politicians have to keep farmers in good humour. the alternative, which can be made to work, could be to go for differential pricing of funds given to fci for conducting food security operations. banks could be told by rbi to price funds at around 10 per cent for fci to run a minimum buffer stock operation. for holding stocks anything above the minimum, banks could be given the freedom to mark up the price of money, which could force fci to turn a bit more efficient. reluctant banks could be given the freedom to opt out.

abn amro to expand chennai back office
chennai: abn amro bank is all set to expand its back office operations based in chennai by taking an additional 30,000 sq ft of space and hiring 300 more persons. this decision has been taken after the success of the global support centre (gsc), which the bank established a year ago, douglas maclean, global head of cash & payment operations, said on thursday.

lic entry may change card business rules
coimbatore: the report that lic is toying with the idea of entering the credit card business offering low interest rate for carried forward balance has come as a boost to millions of cardholders groaning under the impact of high interest levied by most of the card issuers in the country. lic's plan, once it materialises, is set to re-write the way the credit card business is run in the country with the highest interest rate being charged despite the liberalised interest rate scenario.

ministry halts irda move on motor tariffs
new delhi: dealing a potentially debilitating blow to the plans to detariff motor insurance, the ministry of finance has asked the insurance regulatory and development authority (irda) to put a halt to the ongoing process. the ministry has suggested that in view of the serious disagreements over the issue, irda should instead initiate a fresh round of discussion by preparing a `consultation paper' to evolve a wider consensus before concrete steps are taken towards dismantling the present system.
the finance ministry has backed its suggestion citing the serious disagreements within the committee on detariffing that had recently submitted its report to irda. though the finance ministry did not find a representation in the 20-member detariffing panel headed by justice t.n.c. rangarajan, the final report had been forwarded to it for its comments.

22 may 2003

icici bank to focus more on origination of loans
mumbai: icici bank, the largest private sector bank in the country, will be playing a bigger role as `originator' of loans than as a lender in the corporate loan market. the bank is counting on its `strong origination capabilities' and relationships with corporates in facilitating such deals. in this arrangement, different from a consortium model, icici bank, often with another lender, takes on the full loan exposure initially by acting as one-point contact for the client and later sells down the assets to a gamut of banks. sometimes, icici bank keeps some exposure to the client in its books and at other times, none at all.

mitsui sumitomo upbeat on indian foray
chennai: the chairman and ceo of mitsui sumitomo insurance company, japan, takeo inokuchi, has said that the company has big expectations from the indian market for non-life insurance. "we would (eventually) like to be number 1 or number 2 among the private sector players in india," inokuchi said here on wednesday. inokuchi said that he understood from the executives of cholamandalam ms general insurance company ltd that the focus would be on retail business. cholamandalam ms general is a joint venture of mitsui sumitomo and the chennai-based murugappa group. m.a. alagappan, chairman, cholamandalam investment and finance ltd, said that when the group began to look at entering the non-life insurance sector, the market size was rs 12,000 crore and in just two years it had grown to rs 14,500 crore. he noted that the market was estimated to grow to rs 45,000 crore by 2010.

manikanta bank top brass arrested
hyderabad: the chairman and two of the directors of manikanta bank, the city-based ailing urban cooperative bank, have been arrested by the crimes and special investigation team of the hyderabad police on wednesday . according to police, the bank chairman, k. siddaiah, and directors, pammidi laxman rao and cherukumilli bhaskar rao, were produced before the metropolitan court. the police have invoked the provisions of andhra pradesh protection of depositors of financial establishments act-1999 against the top brass of manikanta bank.

andhra bank plans to return rs 50 cr more to govt
hyderabad: the board of directors of andhra bank is scheduled to meet here on friday to consider and approve a proposal to return further capital of rs 50 crore to the central government. the bank had returned rs 50 crore during last fiscal out of share capital contributed earlier through the allotment of recapitalisation bonds. it also refunded rs 11.91 crore to the government out of the interest earned by the bank on recapitalisation bonds during the holding period after setting off the dividend paid pro rata on such returned capital amount

setting up rural branches - finance ministry, rbi get tough with new pvt banks
new delhi: the indian countryside could soon be dotted with scores of signboards of new branches set up by the nine new private sector banks. the ministry of finance and the reserve bank of india have decided to adopt a tough stand on the banks' reluctance to open branches in the rural and semi-urban areas as committed by them in their licensing agreements. egged on by the finance ministry, the rbi recently sent a missive to the banks to fall in line with the licensing condition under which each of them are required to have at least 25 per cent of their branches in the rural and semi-urban areas.

potential for credit rating upgrade highest in healthcare, predicts s&p
new delhi: the number of debt issuers recorded globally, whose credit rating is raised to investment ('bbb-' and above) from speculative grade ('bb+' and below) - termed '"rising stars" by standard & poor's (s&p) - has been declining every year since its peak in 1997. for the present, though, the sectors that demonstrated the highest potential for rising stars were healthcare, media and entertainment and retail/restaurants, according to a report released on tuesday by standard & poor's rating services.

a rising tide of negative ratings momentum in the past few years has resulted in the number of rising stars recorded globally being outstripped by the number of fallen angels in each year since 1999.

ncaer calls for holistic transition of agri sector
bangalore: the national council for applied economic research (ncaer) has called for a more holistic approach towards managing change and creating adjustment mechanisms to deal with the transition process in the indian agriculture sector.
ncaer's principal economist anil sharma in his presentation on "trade policy issues in indian agriculture" at the world bank's abcde however hoped that liberalisation of agricultural trade would benefit indian agriculture in view of levels of support and deregulation of domestic and external trade. sharma cautioned that changes resulting from liberalisation would not be uniform and said that the process of trade liberalisation initially or in the short run may lead to a loss of livelihood for the insecure sections of the rural society as the process of resources reallocation takes place.

abcde commences in bangalore
bangalore: the world bank-sponsored three-day annual bank conference on development economics (abcde) commenced here on wednesday with leading figures from the world of development economics deliberating on the strategies to trigger growth in the least developed countries as well as sustaining the momentum of growth in the developing world. the presentations on the inaugural day, shadowed by the nationwide strike called by left-wing trade unions protesting against what they called the fund-bank inspired economic reforms process, were far from the 'one size fits all' approach the critics often associated with world bank.

ifc raises india investment size to $350million this fiscal
bangalore: impressed with the surge in the indian economy, the international finance corporation (ifc), washington, has raised its annual investments in india to $350 million for 2003-04 from the previous year's $160 million. ifc is particularly impressed with the country's manufacturing and housing finance sectors. it has expressed optimism of india becoming the second fastest growing economy after china, and decided to provide funds to manufacturing, housing finance, information technology and animation, infrastructure and agriculture sectors during the current fiscal and for the next decade.

21 may 2003

rbi okays direct investment in overseas listed cos
new delhi: the reserve bank of india (rbi) has now operationalised a slew of big-bang measures that were announced by the finance minister, jaswant singh, in january this year to bring about further flexibility in capital account transactions and further integrate the indian financial market with the global capital markets. these measures related to direct investments in equity of overseas companies listed in recognised stock exchanges abroad. sources said a listed indian company could, effective from may 14, invest in the shares of an overseas company that is listed on a recognised stock exchange and has a shareholding in its name of not less than 10 per cent in any listed indian company as on 1st january of the year of investment. the only condition in case of investment by the listed indian company is that the investment should not exceed 25 per cent of its networth shown in its latest audited balance sheet.

industrial strike today, banking to be badly hit
new delhi: five of the nine leading bank unions have extended support to wednesday's nationwide industrial strike called by the left parties-led trade unions to protest against the centre's economic and labour policies. the strike is expected to bring the banking operations to a grinding halt across the country. clearing operations involving rs 70,000-80,000 crore are likely to be hit by the stir, according to one estimate. all-india bank officers confederation's delhi unit president t n goel said here on tuesday that the unions are expressing their opposition to the government's moves on privatisation, disinvestment, opening up of the financial sector to multinationals, etc, measures that they perceive to be "anti-people and against the interests of the common man".

irda's standard pension scheme gets mixed response from insurance firms
new delhi: the standard pension plan drafted by the n shinkar committee may not find unreserved acceptance in the life insurance industry. players reacted somewhat cautiously to the plan. while some dubbed it as a 'workable' proposal, others were sceptical about the practicability of a standardised product in a competitive market. the plan was unveiled at the life insurance council meeting in hyderabad on may 5, by insurance regulatory and development authority (irda) chairman n rangachary. he has sought feedback on the proposed plan within a month. "standardised pension plans may have a limited role to play in entry-level positions. however, they are normally not used for the mainstream market where the benefits of product providers competing against each other in terms of pricing and product features are more in the consumers' interest. we must remember that the whole point of liberalisation was competition and choice, not homogeneous offerings," ceo of aviva life insurance stuart purdy pointed out

resona raises tax reform urgency- akio okuyama
tokyo: the head of japan's peak accounting body said on tuesday there was an urgent need for tax reform to prevent capital shortages that forced resona bank to seek a government bail-out from affecting more of the country's banks. akio okuyama, president of the japanese institute of certified public accountants, said japan's "big four" banks were unlikely to suffer the fate of fifth-ranked resona bank, which was forced to seek a government bail-out at the weekend. but he said all banks, including megabanks, would face a tough time maintaining the quality of their capital if the economy stayed weak.

rabo india scouts for energy fund investors
mumbai: the non-banking finance company rabo india finance and bts, a swiss government-affiliated entity, is setting up a $30-million private equity fund dedicated to renewable energy projects in the country. the company is in the process of scouting for both domestic and overseas investors for the `indian renewable energy equity fund' (ireed), as it is called, for the present, said a senior official with rabo india finance. rabo india finance will be the `country advisor' for the private equity fund.

crisil upgrades tata fin ncd
mumbai: crisil has upgraded the rating on tata finance ltd's rs 260-crore non-convertible debenture programme to `bbb' from `bbb-'- earlier. the rating upgrade is based on the successful execution of the company's recapitalisation plan which has restored its capital adequacy levels to above the regulatory requirements, as on march 31, 2003. the upgrade is also based on the improvement in its core vehicle finance business.

central bank net up 88 pc
new delhi: central bank of india has declared a net profit of rs 305.52 crore for the year ended march 31, 2003, an 87.73 per cent rise over the previous year's net of rs 163.30 crore. the operating profit for the year has gone up by 31.25 per cent to rs 924 crore as against rs 704 crore in the previous year. the total business increased to rs 74,324 crore at the end of fiscal 2002-03, a rise of 8.62 per cent over the previous year. while total deposits grew by 8.55 per cent to rs 51,165 crore, gross advances increased by 8.2 per cent to rs 24,851 crore. the bank has said that low-cost deposits constitute 43 per cent of the aggregate deposits. the total income rose to rs 5,626.54 crore (rs 5258.12 crore).

centurion's public issue likely in q3
bangalore: centurion bank expects its proposed rs 65-crore rights-cum-public issue to hit the market by the third quarter of the current financial year, the chairman and managing director, v. janakiraman, said. post-issue, the capital adequacy ratio of the bank is likely to be 10 per cent, he added. however, he did not detail current figures citing regulatory restrictions. the recapitalisation plan for the bank was currently proceeding as per schedule, he said. the merger of bank muscat and centurion will take effect as soon as the goa bench of the mumbai high court approves of it, he added.

andhra bank in talks to hedge high-cost deposits
chennai: andhra bank is working on entering into a rupee-dollar swap arrangement, for covering about rs 800 crore of preferential rate (high-cost) deposits, the bank's chairman and managing director, b. vasanthan, said on tuesday. he said the bank had received quotes from a few counter-parties. this is the second time that andhra bank is entering into a hedging arrangement. the first time was with the hong kong & shanghai banking corporation (hsbc) late last year, when the bank covered rs 175 crore of its tier-ii capital.

sbi capital net up 50 pc; to pay 35 pc
mumbai: sbi capital markets has recorded a 50 per cent rise in net profit at rs 28.36 crore for the year ended march 2003 as against rs 18.81 crore in the previous corresponding period. the company has declared a dividend of 35 per cent for the year, which is the highest dividend it has ever declared, a press release quoted d.p roy, chairman of sbi capital, as saying. during this period, the company has registered a gross income of rs 120.62 crore (rs 103.08 crore). fee income from merchant banking and advisory services grew to rs 41.04 crore (rs 24.21 crore).

ifci offers 9 pc coupon to epfo for roll-over
new delhi: in what could provide the trigger for the restructuring of its pending provident fund liabilities, ifci ltd has offered an interest rate of nine per cent to the employees provident fund organisation (epfo) for rolling over its investments in the various instruments floated by the institution in the past. the offer is nearly 300 basis points above the average rate of six per cent at which banks and institutions have recently agreed to roll over their investments in the institution. "we are offering a very attractive rate to the epfo. the coupon offered is nearly 250 basis points above the prevalent coupon rate of similar debt paper. moreover, other institution recently rolled over their investments in our paper at around six per cent," v.p. singh, chairman and managing director, ifci, said.

sidbi bonds issue opens today
mumbai: small industries development bank of india (sidbi) plans to launch its capital gains bonds through the private placement route on may 21. the issue will be available on tap. sidbi will offer three instruments for tenures of 3 years and 5 years at a coupon rate of 5.25 per cent, with put-and-call options at the end of the three-year lock-in period. the bonds have been assigned a credit rating of "care aaa" by care. instruments carrying this rating are considered to be of the best quality carrying negligible investment risk. no tax will be deducted at source on the interest payable on these bonds.

icici bank cuts deposit rates
mumbai: icici bank ltd has reduced interest rates on retail domestic deposits, by 25 to 100 basis points, across various maturities effective may 22, 2003. for deposits up to rs 15 lakh and with a maturity of 15-45 days the new rate is 3 per cent from 3.50 per cent previously. for 46-60 days the rate is now 4.50 per cent (3.50 per cent), for 2 to 3 months, 4 per cent (4.50 per cent), for 3 to 6 months, 5.25 (5.50 per cent), for 6 months to one year, 5.50 per cent (5.75 per cent), for one to two years, 5.75 per cent (6 per cent), for two to ten years, 6 per cent (6.25 per cent).

20 may 2003

charminar bank begins repayment of deposits
hyderabad: with the deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation (dicgc) expressing its willingness to release an amount of rs 161 crore in two phases to the depositors of charminar bank, the city-based ailing urban cooperative bank, under the deposit insurance scheme, has started repayment to its depositors from monday. according to the bank officials, dicgc has given rs 75 crore under phase i last friday with an assurance that the rest would be released soon. following this, the bank announced that it would repay depositors' money from monday till wednesday.

rbi issues norms on ucb deposits
mumbai: scheduled urban co-operative banks (ucbs) must satisfy certain conditions if they want to accept deposits from non-scheduled ucbs, according to a reserve bank of india (rbi) circular issued on monday. the apex bank has stipulated conditions for scheduled ucbs for accepting deposits from non-scheduled ucbs. the circular said that strong scheduled ucbs with npa levels of less than seven per cent and those, which have been complying, with the prescribed level of crar can accept deposits provided they satisfy other conditions.

idbi bank clears 1:2 rights issue
mumbai: the board of directors of idbi bank on monday approved a rights issue of equity shares in the ratio of one equity share for every two shares held at a price of rs 22 per share. idbi bank share closed at rs 25.45 on the bse on monday, up from friday's close of rs 25.25. the bank hopes to raise a capital of rs 150 though the rights issue. the bank which has been unable to raise capital for various reasons in the past few months, finally decided to go for a rights issue last week, thereby putting all other capital-raising plans on the backburner.

iob posts 80-pc rise in net; to pay rs 1.6
chennai: indian overseas bank (iob) has posted a net profit of rs 416.10 crore for the 2002-03 fiscal, up from rs 230.21 crore for the previous year. the board of directors has recommended a dividend of rs 1.6 per share (16 per cent), up from rs 1.2 paid in the previous year. the bank's operating profit for the year was rs 794.13 crore, against rs 616.36 crore in the previous year. (this includes interest on recapitalisation bonds of about rs 100 crore.) the chairman and managing director, s.c. gupta, said that the profits of the bank came mainly from operations rather than from treasury. net interest margin increased from 2.53 per cent as of march 2000 to 3.14 per cent in march 2003.

obc declares a dividend of 45 per cent
new delhi: oriental bank of commerce (obc) has recorded a net profit of rs 457 crore for the financial year ended march 31, 2003, a 43.5 per cent growth over the previous year net of rs 320 crore. the gross profit for the year stood at rs 1,163 crore, 26.82 per cent higher than the previous year's rs 917 crore. for the fourth quarter ended march 31, 2003, the net profit was rs 119.49 crore, a jump of 87.28 per cent over rs 63.80 crore in the last quarter of the previous fiscal. addressing a press conference here on monday , the chairman and managing director, obc, b.d. narang, said the bank declared a dividend of 45 per cent for the fiscal, against 35 per cent in the previous year.

psbs to bear burden of maharashtra credit plan
pune: the burden of implementing the annual credit plan in maharashtra will fall on the public sector banks (psbs) because of the difficult financial condition of the district central cooperative banks (dccbs). anandrao adsul, minister of state for finance (expenditure, banking and insurance), indicated that there were plans to shift some of the credit plan from the cooperatives to the psu banks. he said this while announcing the state's annual credit plan for 2003-04 at the state level bankers' committee meeting convened by bank of maharahstra here on monday. the district central cooperative bank is the major purveyor of short term credit to agriculture and other priority sectors in maharashtra contributing about 55 per cent of the credit plan. but their poor financial conditions of 13 dccbs and the restrictions imposed on them for borrowing from refinancing agencies could impact flow of credit and size of the credit plan so the public sector banks would be asked to chip in. the total outlay for 2003-04 for the state is rs 11,485 crore. adsul said the public sector banks could easily shoulder this responsibility.

birla sun plans to expand capital base
new delhi: birla sun life insurance will 'very soon' be investing another rs 20 crore to raise its capital base to rs 200 crore, with possible further infusion of capital later in the year as well. it has set its sights on a target of 1.8 lakh policies with an annualised premium of rs 450 crore in the current year. the company has clocked an annualised premium collection of rs 170 crore and a net premium income of rs 139.89 crore in 2002-03, its second year of operations. the corresponding figures for the previous year were rs 36 crore and rs 26.79 crore. the average premium per policy also rose sharply to rs 19,000 from rs 16,000 the previous year, and the average sum assured stood at rs 3.56 lakh. it sold 65,000 individual life policies and covered 40,000 lives through its group insurance covers during the last fiscal, associate director, marketing and communication anjana grewal said.

uco bank net rises 25 pc
kolkata: in its diamond jubilee year (2002-03), uco bank has posted 25.45 per cent growth in the net profit at rs 207 crore.
for the first time, the board of directors of the bank, at a meeting here on monday, decided to pay a token dividend of rs 1 crore to the government. v.p. shetty, chairman and managing director of uco, while briefing newspersons about the bank's performance in 2002-03, however, said the income from treasury operations at rs 354 crore was more or less at last year's level. the net interest income at rs 882 crore posted a growth of rs 152 crore.

gtb ties up with baazee.com
hyderabad: global trust bank (gtb), the hyderabad-based private sector bank, has tied-up with baazee.com for providing e-payment facility to its customers for online shopping. baazee.com is the country's largest online auction and fixed price shopping site where one can buy or sell anything. in a press release here on monday, gtb said its customers registered for internet banking facility could now make payments on baazee online store through ibank@gtb. the bank has adopted the latest technology to provide a secure and reliable e-payment facility with digital certificate and 128-bit encryption.

rabo india fin to focus more on infrastructure
mumbai: rabo india finance, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the netherlands-based rabobank international, is to have higher focus on the infrastructure sector. "about 60-70 per cent of our incremental growth is to come from infrastructure this year, both advisory services and funding. our focus areas are primarily agriculture infrastructure, sustainable infrastructure and contiguous infrastructure,'' said somak ghosh, director, project advisory & infrastructure management, rabo india finance. the business mix will certainly see a change in the running year. the nbfc is to recruit 25-odd personnel, which will take the staff strength to 110 from the present 85. most of the fresh recruitments are expected to be for the infrastructure segment, senior officials in rabo india finance said.

ubi sheds `weak' tag; pat at rs 305 cr
kolkata: united bank of india has recorded a post-tax profit of rs 305 crore for the year ended march 31, 2003, an increase of more than 250 per cent over the previous fiscal. an overwhelming part of the profit is on account of the bank's treasury operations.
ubi clocked an operating profit of rs 556 crore for 2002-03, up from rs 237 crore posted in the previous year. its net interest income for the period under review stood at rs 719 crore, up from rs 602 crore. the bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 15.17 per cent as on march 31, 2003, while the return on assets stood at 1.37 per cent as on that date. its business per employee was rs 1.62 crore, up from rs 1.44 crore in 2001-02.

19 may 2003

investment-cum-protection range from om kotak
new delhi: om kotak mahindra life insurance on saturday launched a new market-linked, investment-cum-protection product. it offers to invest in the capital market and gain market-linked returns. the premiums paid were converted into units and invested in any one or a combination of four professionally managed funds selected by the policy-holder, managing director shivaji dam said.

vice-president, marketing, ashutosh bishnoi said the product could give higher returns vis-a-vis fixed deposits and still allowed the policy-holder to take risk without fear of losing the initial capital. it had the added benefit of life cover and tax-free returns, he elaborated. the managed funds will be money market, gilt, balanced or growth-based.

lic western zone business rises
mumbai: the life insurance corporation of india's western zone has scored over the other zones by clocking a business of rs 37,303 crore, in the year 2002-03. in absolute volume of first premium income, the zone occupied first position with a total first premium of rs 2,347 crore, said a press release. it achieved the highest growth rate of the decade at 12.48 per cent by selling 40.09 lakh policies. in the area of individual pension and single premium policies, rs 1,107.73 crore worth of first premiums were collected. under the pension and group business category, the zone covered 4.86 lakh lives with rs 693 crore of total premium under 2,311 schemes. the western zone appointed 51,901 agents during the year taking the total number of agents in the zone to 1,68,195.

rbi staff call off stir
kochi: the strike by the all india reserve bank employees association and the reserve bank workers federation has been called off. the organisations were on strike in protest against the stopping of the currency note inspection department in the reserve bank and destroying of notes without inspection. the strike has been called off following the settlement reached at the discussion between the reserve bank governor and representatives of the organisations, a release issued here said.

s. korean co enters race for atm share
mumbai: competition in the indian atm market is expected to get hotter with the entry of one more player in the field. nanocash 3000, a `table-top' atm manufactured by nautilus hyosung, a south korean company, was just launched in the indian market, which is dominated by ncr and diebold brands. the compact machine, which weighs 90 kg, can be installed on shop counters. the small size (630 mm in height, 344 mm in width and 550 mm in depth) makes the machine suited to installation in public areas such as shopping malls, railway stations and hospitals. the machine uses a pc-based platform and a windows user interface. the application software developed by tipl has ndc emulation, which allows connection to an ndc network. the company is also working to develop diebold 911/912 emulation that would greatly enhance its usability.

rural development banks bag awards
hyderabad: the uttar pradesh-based sgv bank has been selected for the government of india trophy for the best all round performance. at the board meeting of national co-operative agriculture and rural development banks' federation ltd (ncardbf) held here, the principal secretary, cooperatives, andhra pradesh, bhale rao, presented the awards to various state-level development banks (sldbs). apart from the best all round performance trophy, the sgv bank has also bagged the punjab chief minister's trophy for best recovery performance and also the venkataratnam memorial trophy for best bank in category-i.

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