20 september 2003

rbi decree to rnbcs on nre deposit rates
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has said that interest rates on fresh repatriable nre deposits accepted from non-resident indians by residuary non-banking companies (rnbcs) must be in line with the interest rates offered by scheduled commercial banks and non-banking finance companies.
scheduled commercial banks can pay interest on these deposits contracted in india for one to three years not exceeding 100 basis points above the libor/swap rates for the us dollar of the corresponding maturity on new repatriable nre deposits. rnbcs are not allowed to accept deposits for a period less than one year with the maximum period set at three years.

dealers says genuine dollar inflow will continue
mumbai: market participants across the board are optimistic about the long-term outlook of the rupee-dollar exchange rate, say reports. while genuine inflows will continue to grow, funds coming in for pure interest rate advantage will recede, dealers were quoted as saying. they said despite the recent central bank measures, nothing much seems to have changed to create such a volatility both in the forex and the inter-bank money markets.
"india is an attractive market and on a medium term outlook, the rupee is expected to remain firm. but in the short term, foreign exchange inflows on a daily basis will tend to slow down. since the rupee is fairly valued, as per reer, it is likely to exhibit two-way volatility depending upon export cancellations and outflows owing to the resurgent india bond (rib) redemption on one hand and reduced inflows on the other," said m a ravikumar, regional head, global markets, standard chartered bank.

sbi, pnb in race for big bull's 11% acc stake
mumbai: the late harshad mehta's 11-per cent holding in cement major acc, which will be out for open bidding from the custodian's shelf shortly, is attracted new bidders. along with old bidders like lic and a few private players, including mehta's shell companies, some new entrants which are joining the fray to pick up the shares are the two large domestic state-owned commercial banks - state bank of india (sbi) and punjab national bank (pnb).
sources were quoted as saying that sbi and pnb are interested in bidding for this holding. market sources pointed out that though these two banks cannot invest more than 5 per cent of their total investment in equities under the prudential guidelines, the attraction of a blue-chip company and the available lucrative bid price are believed to be the two key motivating factors for these banks to join the bidding bandwagon.

19 september 2003

rbi eases advance remittance norms
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has liberalised the procedure for advance remittance by authorised dealers of over $100,000 or equivalent without bank guarantee for import of goods into india.

nri-owned overseas firms on par with foreign investors'
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has today permitted overseas entities owned by non-resident indians (nris) to enjoy all the facilities available to any foreign investor, including automatic route for foreign direct investment.
however, these entities will not be able to enjoy any special facilities such as holding nre, nro, fcnr(b), savings or current accounts.

rib outflows will not impact markets
mumbai: with the resurgent india bonds redemptions just a fortnight away, the reserve bank of india has reiterated that ` no cognisable impact' is anticipated in the financial markets on account of the dollar outflow.

sbi computerisation drive
kochi: all branches of sbi in kerala will be fully computerised soon, mr c. narasimhan , chief general manager, kerala circle, said while inaugurating the full branch computerisation of the ernakulam south branch.

sbi, bajaj auto sign pact
mumbai: state bank of india and bajaj auto ltd on thursday announced a strategic tie-up to offer loans for its two-wheeler customers.
the two entities signed an agreement entering into a preferred relationship for extending consumer finance all across the country.

lic in pact with sbi caps
mumbai: life insurance corporation of india (lic) has entered into a strategic alliance with sbi caps to avail of the merchant banker's investment banking and project advisory services.
lic

18 september 2003

india inc covering $10-bn short forex positions
mumbai: corporate india has started covering gross forex short positions, estimated at a staggering $10 billion or so and testing the waters by taking on fresh long positions on the dollar in anticipation of a dip in the rupee in early october.
senior dealers say that export-dollar cancellation is also rearing its head in a market with heavy "oversold" positions.

idbi corporatising plan in full swing
new delhi: preparatory work for transforming the industrial and development bank of india (idbi) into a universal bank was apace in anticipation of passage of the bill pending before parliament. banking secretary ns sisodia told fe that "we need not wait further once the idbi bill is passed," adding that the government and the bank were going ahead with all preliminary work needed for corporatising idbi.

16 september 2003

rbi cuts nre deposit rate cap
mumbai: in a significant step, the reserve bank has said the interest rate offered on non-resident (external) rupee deposits will now be capped at 100 basis points (bps) over the london inter-bank offered rate (libor). this is a sharp 150 bps reduction from the earlier ceiling of 250 bps over libor, announced on july 17 this year.

e&y to advise dcb on capital raising plan
mumbai: expecting the regulations to permit foreign direct investment in domestic private sector banks up to 74 per cent, the development credit bank (dcb) has appointed global consultancy firm ernst & young (e&y) to advise on the bank's capital raising plan.
"the regulatory environment in respect of foreign direct investment limit in domestic private sector banks is likely to change and the e&y will advise on financing options for the given scenario and regulatory environment," dcb managing director hv sheshadri said.

pnb housing raises $5 m through ecbs
new delhi: pnb housing finance ltd has raised $5 million by way of external commercial borrowings (ecbs). the deal was arranged by standard chartered bank.
according to a release, the company proposes to raise a total of $25 million through the ecb route. negotiations for the remaining $20 million are in an advanced stage. the company would also raise another rs 250 million by way of commercial paper.

icici bank named bank of year
mumbai: icici bank been chosen as the `bank of the year 2003' in india and has won the `best multi-channel strategy 2003' in the banker awards 2003.
the award is given by the banker magazine, the global finance magazine of the financial times group of uk.

lic housing finance sanctions up 47 per cent in april-august
chennai: lic housing finance's sanctions till the end of august this year, at rs 1,729,85 crore, were up 47.36 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. disbursements grew by 61.7 per cent, to reach a figure of rs 1,545.26 crore, the company's ceo and director, mr s c jain, said here.

september 17

sbm to computerise all branches by next year
visakapatnam: state bank of mysore (sbm) will computerise all its 615 branches by the end of june 2004, and the first phase of branch networking covering 300 major branches will also be completed by that time, mr m. sitarama murty, managing director, has said.

madras hc declines to set aside order on winding up of finance co - appoints administrator
chennai: the madras high court has refused to set aside the order for winding up of the chennai-based fidelity finance ltd. it ordered appointment of a full-time administrator to recover the amounts due to the company in liquidation from various borrowers in the interest of the litigant public/depositors.

central bank of india for agri-priority survey
mumbai: the central bank of india has initiated a household economic survey in the 26,000 service area villages for offering need-based productive finance as part of boosting its direct agricultural advances to 13.5 per cent by march 2005. the bank is targeting to disburse rs 1,100 crore of advances through this channel to farmers during fiscal 2003-04.

escorts in tie up with uco bank
new delhi: leading tractor maker escorts ltd on tuesday launched a special tractor finance scheme for farmers in association with uco bank.
the `uco escorts krishi jyothi' scheme would provide 100 per cent finance facilities to buyers of escorts tractors without requiring any fixed deposit from them, a company release said.

sidbi signs pact with oriental bank
new delhi: small industries development bank of india (sidbi) and oriental bank of commerce (obc) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to work together on projects related to the small-scale, infrastructure and service sectors.

idbi homefinance slashes rates by up o 150 bps
mumbai: dbi homefinance ltd, which is the new name of the tata homefinance ltd after the takeover by industrial development bank of india (idbi), has reduced its variable home loan rates by up to 150 basis points (bps). the revised rates will be effective from september 17, 2003.

rbi discourages repatriable bank deposits
mumbai: late on monday, the reserve bank of india, in a sudden move, capped the rates on nre deposits at libor plus 100 basis points. earlier the spread allowed was 250 basis points.

rbi asks iba to prepare report on plr system
mumbai: the reserve bank of india has asked the indian banks' association (iba) to formulate a report on the methodology to be adopted for making the prime lending rate more transparent to customers.

15 september 2003

corporation bank to collect central excise, service tax
bangalore: the central board of excise and customs (cbec) has nominated corporation bank to collect central excise and service tax in the bangalore commissionerate ii region. the regions falling under this commissionerate include bangalore cantonment, yelahanka, doddabalapur, tumkur, chitradurga, davangere harihar, and rannebennur. branches located in these regions would collect the taxes.
the bank was already collecting these taxes in the mangalore commissionerate since 2001 and in dakshina kannada district on behalf of the department, the release added. officials of cbec had conducted a workshop to train personnel of corporation bank's branches on the procedural aspects of the tax collection and their subsequent remittance to the government with speed and accuracy. the bank has already been collecting direct taxes on behalf of the government since march 2000 at 270 branches across the country. further, the bank also handled the pension payments for retired personnel of both the central and state government in more than 400 branches all over the country.

icici bank opens new atm in coimbatore
coimbatore: icici bank has activated its 25th atm in coimbatore city. the atm, installed at the bpcl retail outlet on the avinashi road here, was inaugurated by the drt (debts recovery tribunal), coimbatore presiding officer, ashok c parkash.

state bank of saurashtra, maruti, join hands in gujarat
ahmedabad: maruti udyog has entered into an alliance with the state bank of saurashtra (sbs) to try and tap potential customers in the saurashtra-kutch belt and other parts of gujarat. sbs has announced the slashing of interest rates by 0.5 per cent, from 10.25 per cent to 9.75 per cent for three-year car loans. s k singh, chief general manager, sbs, said the reduced rates will be applicable only for maruti car loans. this package also include loans over three years wherein the interest rates will stand reduced from the present level of 11 per cent to10.5 per cent.
thus, the emi per rs 1 lakh will henceforth be rs 1,686,which means a reduction by rs 30 for a seven-year loan, singh said. this is the latest such effort at going in for an exclusive tie-up with a state bank by mul in a bid to carve out a regional niche for the marketing of its vehicles. three such recent forays had come in july with mul tying up with the state bank of mysore, state bank of indore and the state bank of travancore.

bombay hc clears centurion restructuring plan
mumbai: the bombay high court (goa bench) has approved the scheme of arrangement filed by centurion bank for restructuring and recapitalisation of the bank. the scheme also envisages merger of the bangalore branch of bank muscat with centurion bank. bank muscat has filed the requisite petition with the karnataka high court and the hearing is scheduled for 10 october 2003. centurion bank has valued bank muscat's bangalore branch at rs 45 crore.
the reserve bank of india (rbi) had, on 22 august, given its in-principle approval for the restructuring of the equity of centurion bank. the investors led by sabre would bring in rs 129 crore, while existing investors such as the asian development bank (adb) and keppel bank of singapore will bring in rs 25 crore, taking the capital infusion to rs 154 crore. in the next phase, there will be a rs 65 crore public cum rights issue. bank muscat will invest rs 75 crore, including the merger of its bangalore branch operations, in centurion bank.

list of reports on finance diary