5 july 2003

sisi, tata aig sign agreement to train insurance advisors
chennai: the small industries service institue (sisi), chennai, has inked a pact with private sector life insurance company tata aig to train unemployed youth as insurance advisors. the programme, 'creative intercrop career opportunity,' will ensure self-employment for youth ready to take up new ventures, sisi director vs karunakaran and tata aig zone head (south) sushanto mukerjee told reporters here on friday. under the mou, sisi will identify youth who could be trained to sell insurance in accordance with irda regulations and tata aig will train and recruit them as advisors after they get their licence from irda. to begin with, 60 candidates will be selected for training after an objective entrance test, karunakaran said. initially the programme will be confined to chennai and later extended to other parts of the state. sisi will launch a month-long programme to develop entrepreneurs ensuring self-employment in biotech ventures from 21st of this month, karunakaran said.

dena bank plans more tie-ups for atm sharing
chennai: dena bank plans to enter into tie-ups with banks to share atms, according to the bank's chairman and managing director a g joshi. dena bank has a similar tie-up with corporation bank. he said that the bank is one of the more technologically advanced public sector banks, with 99.8 per cent of the metro and urban branches computerised. also, 300 branches were interconnected, and customers could do 'multi-branch banking' in these branches, he said.

sbi's rib mop-up products to be named soon
thiruvananthapuram: the state bank of india (sbi) has worked out new security products to retrieve a chunk of the rs 25,000-crore resurgent india bonds (rib) as they get closer to maturity. after consultation with rbi, these will be named this month, according to sbi group chairman a k purwar. the bank targets recouping at least 35 per cent of the total rib outgo, purwar told reporters on the sidelines of an office-opening function, here, in reply to a question. the five-year ribs, targeting nris, are due to mature this year.

exim bank extends line of credit to absa bank
mumbai: exim bank has extended a line of credit of $10 million to absa bank, the largest commercial bank in south africa, to support india's exports to that country. an agreement to this effect was signed in pretoria on friday by p r dalal, general manager, exim bank and peter gordon, head-international banking, absa bank, said exim bank in a press release. exim bank's line of credit affords a risk-free, non-recourse export financing option to indian exporters. under the facility to absa bank, the importers from south africa are required to make advance payment of 10 per cent of contract value to the indian exporters and the balance 90 per cent of it would be reimbursed by exim bank to the indian exporters, upfront upon the shipment of goods, said the release. india's exports to south africa amounted to $351 million during the year 2001-02, registering a growth of 13.8 per cent over the previous year. agriculture and processed food products, transport equipment, cotton yarn, fabrics, ready made apparels, madeups, machinery and instruments and manufacturers of metal were the principal items in the export basket.

lichfl says it is open to interest rate cut
new delhi: indicating another cut in home loans, lic housing finance (lichfl) on friday said it was open to it, while aiming at a rs 2,500 crore mop up in 2003-04 from both domestic and overseas markets and 50 per cent rise in business. "if the market forces permit and cost of funds go down, there is always scope for it (cut in interest rates)," lichfl chief executive sc jain said here. addressing reporters after the opening of its property information centre, which gives information on properties and price range, he said at present the soft interest rate bias continues and is favourable for further cut. pointing out that the current cost of funds stood at 7.6 per cent, he hoped it would be brought down to 7.0 per cent. lichfl's interest rate ranges from 8.75 per cent to 9.75 per cent for floating rate schemes of different tenure and for the fixed rate option, it ranges between 9.75-11.5 per cent. he, however, said there had been poor response to the fixed interest rate scheme and added that a customer could shift from fixed to floating by paying one time payment of 0.5 per cent on the amount taken as loan. on borrowings, jain said "we have set a borrowing target of rs 2,500 crore this year, which could be mobilised from diverse sources, including external commercial borrowings (ecbs).

4 july 2003

kerala banks sweat it out
thiruvananthapuram: kerala banks have sweated out 2.74 per cent haul-up in their credit deposit ratio in the state over the last ten months. at the same time, its investment-linked cd ratio (worked out factorising investments to bank advances) has hit an all-time high of 51.45 per cent. according to the report made to the state level bankers committee (slbc) meeting, convened by canara bank, here, the cd ratio has climbed to 45.47 per cent in march 2003. this was 42.73 per cent in june 2002, and 44.6 per cent in december 2002. the priority sector lending (psl) was feared to go slack since as on december 2002, only rs 6,674 crore could be achieved. however, amply crossing the rs 8,912-crore target, psl has hit rs 11,867 crore on march 2003. in the march 2002-march 2003 period, deposit growth was only 14.99 per cent. the growth of nri deposits has been at 16.96 per cent. advances, meanwhile grew at an appreciable 22.41 per cent, explaining the progress in cd ratio. as on march 2003, the total deposits in kerala banks is rs 59,399 crore. of this nri deposits account for rs 28,695.5 crore. the advances total to rs 27,006.5 crore. in addition, the banks have invested rs 30,559 crore in securities. from 42.71 per cent in march 2001, the cd ratio had gone up a tad to 42.73 per cent in june 2002. for the last 10 years, the sagging cd ratio had been a sore spot between banks and the successive governments in power in the state.

rbi dates for line of credit on exports to sri lanka
mumbai: the reserve bank of india (rbi) has fixed the terminal dates for opening letters of credit and utilisation of credit by indian exporters under the line of credit (loc) of $5 million to hatton national bank of sri lanka as november 19, 2004 and may 19, 2005, respectively. the credit became effective from may 20, 2003 and is available for financing export from india of capital goods, plant and machinery, industrial manufactures, consumer durables and other items which are eligible for being exported under the exim policy and related services to buyers in sri lanka, rbi said in a notification to the authorised dealers (ads) in foreign exchange on thursday. export-import bank of india (exim bank) has concluded an agreement with hatton national bank ltd (hnb), sri lanka on february 12, 2003, making available to the latter, a loc up to an aggregate sum of $5 million.

nhb sells entire stake in vysya bank housing finance
mumbai: national housing bank (nhb) has sold its entire stake in vysya bank housing finance (vbhfl) to the promoters of dewan housing finance corporation ltd (dhfl). nhb has around 5.30 per cent holding in vbhfl, which is now under the management control of kapil wadhawan-led dhfl, following its acquisition of 85.91 per cent stake in vbhfl. however, sources in the housing finance sector believe that the nhb sold off the stake for a consideration of nearly rs 1.50 crore, at the rate which dhfl bought out stakes in the vbhfl. dhfl managing director kapil wadhawan declined to comment on this issue. dhfl has acquired the total stake in vbhfl for rs 23.20 crore.

sbi home loan package for kerala varsity staff
thiruvananthapuram: state bank of india (kerala circle) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the university of kerala, under which the bank proposes to extend housing loans under special package to the university staff (both teaching and non-teaching) with immediate effect. the scheme is similar to the package extended by the bank to employees of the mahatma gandhi university, kottayam, last month. all employees who have put in two years of permanent service are eligible for these loans. the maximum amount of loan that the staff can avail themselves of has been fixed at the equivalent of 60 times the monthly basic pay or 90 per cent of the project cost. loans are available for construction/purchase of new houses/flats, repairs/renovation and for takeover of existing loan accounts from other institutions. they are repayable over a maximum period of 18 years. the interest rate applicable would be 8.75 per cent per annum (fixed) for loans up to rs 5 lakh and 9 per cent for loans above rs 5 lakh.

new india to extend cover to sbi loanees
mumbai: new india assurance company and state bank of india have joined hands to provide accident insurance cover to all loanees of the bank availing housing and car loans. the insurance scheme has been designed such that the premium will be entirely borne by sbi, instead of the loanees, said a press release. housing and car loans disbursed from all the branches of sbi will come under the scope of the agreement from 1 july 2003. if the loanee dies due to accident, the entire outstanding loan with interest as on date of death will be paid by new india assurance to the bank and the account squared off, the release said. an mou to this effect has been signed by a v purushothaman, director and general manager of new india assurance, and t s bhattacharya, chief general manager, sbi.

3 july 2003