HSBC consolidates
Mumbai: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has consolidated its broking and investment banking operations in India, and has cut its workforce by more than 25 per cent in these divisions, according to a report in the Business Standard.

The group’s corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and project finance divisions will now be centralised at Mumbai. Offices in Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai will become supporting branches.
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Exim to offer export credit for an intermediate tenure
Mumbai: The Export and Import Bank of India will henceforth also provide export credit for a period of six to 12 months. Exporters have been getting credit for periods of less than six months or over 12 months. The Exim Bank's decision will fill this gap.

Industries that export engineering, capital goods, auto ancillaries and pharmaceuticals would benefit from this move, as they have a working capital cycle longer than six months.
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Banking secretary rules out cut in interest rates
Panaji: According to a report in The Economic Times, banking secretary Devi Dayal has ruled out a drastic cut in interest rates in the near future. He stated this while speaking to members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Ficci president Sudhir Jalan said that industry was expecting a cut in interest rates of some three per cent. Mr. Devi Dayal said that the cut in rates will certainly not be to that extent, since the banking sector is faced with higher expectations of depositors and poor performance on account of non-performing assets.

He also said that it will be made mandatory for non-banking finance companies to have minimum owned funds of Rs.50 lakh by end-September 1999. The Reserve Bank of India has received around 30,000 applications for registration as non-banking finance companies, of which it has short listed around 8,000.
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PriceWaterhouse survey on Indian stock market
Mumbai: PriceWaterhouseCoopers India Ltd will be doing a survey on the key forces determining share prices in the Indian stock markets. The management consulting firm will meet fund managers and analysts who between them handle close to 80 per cent of the assets in mutual funds and around 65 per cent of the assets of foreign insitutional investors in India.

The aim is to assist local companies understand market expectations and help them enhance the value from their shareholders' perspective. PWC has conducted three such surveys worldwide in the past. From mid-September onwards, the firm will hold seminars to disseminate the results of the survey.
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NHAI’s mega project
Mumbai: The National Highway Authority of India will go ahead with its Rs.50,000-crore, ten-year project for four-laning of 1,300 km of roads. The project is part of the National Highway Development Project, which plans to connect the four metropolitan cities of Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta and Mumbai which will run across the country.

The means of financing will include budgetary support, external funding from the Asian Development Bank, Japan's OECF, private projects on a build, operate and transfer basis, and borrowings through special purpose vehicles. Budgetary support is expected to fund around 15 per cent of the total project. Another 20 per cent will come through special purpose vehicles.
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CDBT’s new orders on IT refunds
New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes has, in a letter dated 20 August 1999, asked all chief commissioners of income tax to ensure that refunds are accompanied with bank advices, wherever required. They have also been asked to be correct on the refund address, intimate the assessee through written means before adjusting refund against outstanding demand, and also pay interest on delayed payment of refund money.
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BNP, Dresdner Bank to come closer
London: According to a report in Britain’s Observer, French bank BNP and German Dresdner Bank will come closer. BNP has just concluded the deal to take over Paribas, while it failed in its bid take over another French bank – Societe Generale.

The newspaper said that the integration of BNP’s London investment banking operations and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson would cause a loss of 1,000 jobs in London alone.

In February 1999, Societe Generale had launched a friendly takeover bid on Paribas, which was followed by BNP’s hostile bid on both Societe Generale and Paribas in March 1999. On 28 August 1999, the French banking regulator ruled that BNP had failed in its bid for taking over Societe Generale.
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Inflation touches 1.56%
New Delhi: The year-on-year inflation rate fell 0.14 per cent to 1.56 per cent for the week ended 14 August 1999. This happened despite the rise in prices of major food articles and vegetables. The inflation rate was 8.34 per cent during the corresponding week of 1998.

In the week ended 24 July 1999, inflation had touched a 20-year low of 1.19 per cent. After that the rate has been on the rise.
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