30 august 2003

kuoni travel to tap pakistan market
bangalore: kuoni travel india (formerly sita world travel) is keen on exploring tourism opportunities in pakistan. according to mr himmat anand, chief operating officer, inbound division, kuoni travel india pvt ltd, "the company is looking at investing in pakistan soon."

forward cover must for fcnr loans
bangalore: banks have imposed forward cover as criteria for disbursement of foreign currency loans to corporates in bid to contain unhedged exposures.
sources said here that the several corporates, both medium and large, had availed of fcnr (foreign currency non-resident) loans in a bid to restrict their interest liabilities. fcnr are currently being advanced at rates of around 350 basis points over the london inter bank offered rate (libor).

four private banks allowed to handle government busines
mumbai: the reserve bank (rbi) on friday allowed private sector banks into what was thus far a turf reserved for state-run banks: working as agents for government business, both of the central and state governments.
effective from october 1, four private sector banks, icici bank, hdfc bank, idbi bank and uti bank can now handle government concerns ranging from collection of direct and indirect taxes of the centre as well pension payments and other expenditure of ministries and departments of the central government.

sbi to computerise all branches in bengal by march
kolkata: state bank of india will complete computerisation of all its 786 branches in bengal circle, covering west bengal, sikkim and andaman & nicobar island, by march 31, 2004. also, the number of loss-making branches in the circle will be brought down to zero during the same period.

home loan utsav at hyderabad
hyderabad: the three-day gruha utsav on home loans to provide home loans at the lowest interest rates began here at the institution of engineers on friday.
inaugurated by mr t. muralidharan, assistant manager, syndicate bank, andhra pradesh zone, hyderabad, the exhibition brings all the service providers for property development, home building and lending under one roof.

dhanalakshmi bank to pay 15 per cent dividend
kochi: dhanalakshmi bank ltd has approved a dividend of 15 per cent to its shareholders.
at the annual general meeting of the bank held at thrissur on friday, the board chairman, mr varadachary, said that the bank had recorded an impressive growth of 49 per cent in net profit during the financial year ended march 31 as the profit for the year stood at rs 15.02 crore. the operating profit went up by 26 per cent to rs 63.52 crore.

5 banks granted extension
hyderabad: the securities and exchange board of india (sebi) has informed the stock exchanges that permission has been granted to five banks to extend the time for finalisation of annual accounts.

29 august 2003

crisil sees good times for retail securitisation
mumbai: the credit rating and information services of india (crisil) said that the indian retail securitisation market is booming. it said that over the last year, asset-backed securitisation (abs) and also mortgage-backed securitisation (mbs) have picked up pace intensively. furthermore, the rating agency expects the abs market to grow at around 40 to 50 per cent over the next few years and mbs issuances to double in volumes within the next two years.
crisil estimates that securitisation of retail loans has increased to rs 5,460 crore in 2002-03 from rs 4,300 crore in 2000-01, registering an annualised growth of 256 per cent.
securitisation is increasingly becoming an important source of funding in the auto finance market, says crisil. securitisation as a proportion of disbursements for the top ten players in the auto finance market has increased to 13.3 per cent in 2002-03 from 2.7 per cent in 2000-01.

banks recover rs 436 crore
new delhi: public sector banks have issued 32,043 notices under the securitisation act till may 2003 to recover an outstanding amount of rs 11,447 crore. the recoveries by the state-run banks till may were rs 436 crore from 8,676 cases.
nine financial institutions served notices to 182 companies for outstanding dues of rs 946 crore till february 2003. the recoveries by fis till end february were rs 25.2 crore.
union bank of india tops the list of 27 public sector banks recovering rs 117.51 crore. the bank had issued 1,388 notices aggregating rs 486.34 crore.
industrial development bank of india (idbi) had issued notices to 41 borrowers till march 31 to recover rs 1,459 crore. icici bank has sent around 50 notices to recover over rs 2,500 crore.

28 august 2003