05 Oct 2002

Bajaj Allianz mobilises Rs 128-crore H1 premium
Mumbai: Bajaj Allianz General Insurance a joint venture between Bajaj Auto and the Germany-based Allianz has mobilised a premium of over Rs 128 crore in the first half of the current fiscal. The company hopes to achieve break-even in the next two years.

IDBI set Tt tap market with Rs 300-crore flexibonds in '02-03
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank of India is set to hit the market with a new Flexibonds series of bonds for the year 2002-03 on October 10 in the form of 15th issue for Rs 300 crore with a greenshoe option for the same amount.

Lakshmi General eyes insurance broking
Chennai: Chennai-based Lakshmi General Finance Ltd is all set to foray into insurance broking business as corporate agent. The company would apply for license once the Irda comes out with the guidelines for corporate agents.

UCB heads form panel to tackle credibility issues
Mumbai: Heads of the leading urban co-operative banks have recently formed a committee to address the credibility crisis of co-operative banks.

PFC raises Rs 324 crore in bond market without intermediaries
New Delhi: Power Finance Corporation has successfully raised Rs 324 crore in the domestic bond market without hiring any lead managers or consultants for the issue.

TCS to implement trade finance solution for SBI
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it has been selected by State Bank of India (SBI) to implement a centralised trade finance solution for the bank, using a software solution provided by a Chinese company, China Systems.

BoB Housing cuts rates
Coimbatore: BoB Housing Finance Ltd (HFL) has cut the interest rate on housing loans by 0.5 per cent from October 1. According to a statement, BoB HFL has reduced the variable rates to 10.5 per cent for loan periods ranging between 1 and 20 years and the fixed rate to 10 per cent for loans in the one and 5-year period.

Central Bank cuts rates on housing
New Delhi: Central Bank of India has reduced the interest rates on housing loans with effect from October 1 in view of the ensuring festive season, the bank's Executive Director, V.N. Saxena, has said.

LIC says no to takeover of term loans by banks
Bangalore: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has declined to allow any form of loan takeover from its portfolio by banks and financial institutions. Sources said here that some of the utilities, public sector undertakings and private sector corporates who had availed of long-term project loans had approached the financial institutions for such loan takeovers by other banks or financial institutions.

Affordable insurance cover against cancer
Mumbai: Cancer insurance for Rs 5,000... Hard to believe, yet true. The Cancer Patients Aid Association, a Mumbai-based NGO, provides a policy that is easy on the pocket and an important source of succour for those afflicted by this painful disease.

SBM celebrates 90 years
Bangalore: State Bank of Mysore has launched year-long celebrations to mark its 90th year of existence. The bank was set up on October 2, 1913 on the recommendation of a banking committee headed by M. Visvesvaraya.

Citibank issue gets `AAA'
Mumbai: Citibank has securitised two pools of assets its had purchased from Ashok Leyland Finance Ltd (ALFL) backed by car, commercial vehicles and construction equipment hire purchase receivables. The Rs 28.30-crore transaction has been rated `AAA' by crisil.

TN: Prime property deals thru Debt Recovery Tribunal
Chennai: "House, ground and premises bearing door No.6 (Old No.42) P.M.K. Colony, Chennai-34, to be auctioned off on 24.10.2002 at 3 p.m. Upset price Rs 59.50 lakh".

TN SSIs move High Court for bank loan waiver
Chennai: Small-scale units in Tamil Nadu have in a writ petition sought a direction from the Madras High Court to waive their dues to banks "as has been done by them for big industrialists".

Gujarat has little time to tackle co-op bank scam
Gandhinagar: The co-operative banking sector in Gujarat continues to be in a shambles despite over half a dozen UCBs falling like nine pins in the last couple of weeks. The State Government, which has gone on an overdrive on the election front, despite no no firm dates being declared, is yet to give a clear-cut directive to the cooperative department or even the Home department to formulate plans on recovering thousands of crores of rupees which has simply disappeared from these banks.

04 Oct 2002

ICICI Bank to sell retail finance products in all 400 branches
Kolkata: As a major step towards increasing its focus on retail financing, ICICI Bank will sell all sorts of retail loan products through all its 400 branches in the near future, according to the chief operating officer of ICICI Home Finance Co Ltd, Rajiv Sabharwal.

INBEF to protest delay in passing debt ordinance
Mumbai: The Indian National Bank Employees Federation is planning to organise a dharna on the eve of the next (winter) Parliament session in protest against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the Centre in passing the Foreclosure Ordinance during the last session.

Curbs in call market likely to affect PDs
Mumbai: Margins of primary dealers, particularly smaller players could be affected from October 5, when restrictions on banks' lending in call money market come into effect.

Good response for UBI's `Union Rent'
Kochi: `Union Rent', a loan product from Union Bank of India specially designed for owners of buildings or portion thereof rented out to reputed companies/institutions, has received encouraging response in Kerala.

Minister favours support for Exim Bank
New Delhi: The Minister of State for Finance, Anandrao Adsul, has said that financial support from the Government for the Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) would enable the bank to play a much larger role in boosting exports from the country.

IDBI seeks to become stand-alone bank
Mumbai: The merger with a state-owned bank would result in the new entity also being categorised as a public sector undertaking, taking into account the substantial equity holdings of the Government in IDBI and the banks.

Bonds auction
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the Rs 7,000 crore auction of two papers, the 7.27 per cent 2013 paper and the 7.95 per cent 2032 paper for October 8.

Karnataka Bank inspection seminar
Mangalore: Karnataka Bank conducted a two-day seminar for the bank's inspecting officials. The seminar was organised by the bank's Staff Training College in association with its Inspection and Audit Department.

03 Oct 2002

Barjeel to open branch in Abu Dhabi soon
Abu Dhabi: Barjeel will be the first licensed international brokerage firm to be established in Abu Dhabi. The new branch will offer a host of services including broking, distribution of IPOs and mutual funds, depository services and consultancy services for NR Is.

Govt to push for clean-up of PSU insurers' balance sheets
New Delhi: After public sector banks, it's cleaning-up time for the public sector general insurance companies. The Ministry of Finance has decided to stress that state-owned insurers should make adequate provisioning in future balance sheets to cover up losses suffered on various portfolios.

Kerala transport staff resent insurance premium hike
Kochi: The Kerala State Road Transport Workers' Federation has decided to organise a demonstration in front of the offices of the general insurance companies here on Thursday demanding withdrawal of hike in insurance premium.

Jindal Strips FD rated stable
Mumbai: Fitch Ratings India has revised the rating of the fixed deposit programme of Jindal Strips Ltd to `tA(ind)' from `Ind A-(FD)'. The rating outlook is stable.

Co-op bank application rejected
Mumbai: The RBI has rejected the licence application of the Manamadurai Co-operative Urban Bank Ltd, Manamadurai, Tamil Nadu, to carry on banking business. The bank is precluded from transacting the business of `banking as defined in the Banking Regulation Act 1949 (as applicable to co-operative societies) said an RBI press release

SBI may offload stake in STCI - To swap shares in DFHI
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) is expected to offload stake in Securites Trading Corporation of India (STCI) in exchange for shares in DFHI from common shareholders in the two primary dealers.

Bid time advanced for bonds auction
Mumbai: The time for submission of bids for auctions of treasury bills and Government of India dated securities has been advanced by the Reserve Bank of India. To be effective from October 16, the timing for the submission of bids for the 91-day and the 364-day Treasury bills will be advanced to 12:30 pm from the present 2:30 pm.

Fall in interest rates - NRIs shift to rupee deposits
Mumbai: Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are increasingly shifting to rupee deposits with FCNR dollar accounts losing sheen on the back of falling interest rates. A one-year non-resident external (NRE) deposit (in rupees) now attracts a rate of anywhere between 6.75 per cent-7.50 per cent, whereas a one-year dollar deposit (FCNR) rate is capped at Libor minus 25 basis points.

Andhra Bank branch gets ISO-9001
Hyderabad: The specialised small scale industries (SSI) branch of Andhra Bank, located at Nacharam here, has been accredited with the Quality Management System certification conforming to ISO 9001:2000 standards by the Netherlands-based Det Norske Veritas Certification NV.