Rupee rangebound - G-Secs move up
Mumbai: The rupee traded in a tight range on Wednesday, ending at 43.75/76, almost unchanged from Tuesday's close of 43.76/77 against the US dollar.

Forwards market: The 12-month premium closed at 1.45 per cent (1.55 per cent) and the six-month at 1.75 per cent (1.83 per cent).

G-Secs: In the bond market, the 8.07 per cent, 2017, 12-year paper was the most actively traded one, ending at Rs105.10 (7.41 per cent YTM), against Tuesday's close of Rs104.80. The 7.38 per cent, 2015, 10-year benchmark paper closed at Rs102.15 (7.05 per cent YTM), against Tuesday's close of Rs102.30 (7.06 per cent). The 6.85 per cent, 2012, seven-year paper traded between Rs99.70 at the lower levels and between Rs99.98 at the upper levels.

The long-end MIFOR-based Overnight Interest Swaps opened at 6.56-6.58 per cent and closed at 6.52-6.53 per cent.

Call rates: The inter bank rates remained unchanged at 4.75 per cent-4.80 per cent.

CBLO market: 143 trades aggregating Rs4,242.90 crore in the rate range of 4.50 to 4.80 per cent, were realised.
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Vijaya Bank annual net down 7.5 per cent
Bangalore: The Vijaya Bank has reported a net profit of Rs380.57 crore for the year ended March 2005, which is down 7.5 per cent from Rs411.31 crore recorded in 2003-04. The bank's board has also recommended a final dividend of 10 per cent, which inclusive of the interim dividends, takes the total dividend payout amount to 25 per cent.

The Chairman and Managing Director, M.S. Kapur, said that the reduction in net profits was largely on account of high depreciation on investments. For the fiscal gone by, Vijaya Bank made a depreciation provision of Rs318 crore.

Another factor that pushed down the net profit was the one-time hit the bank took after transferring Rs1,093 crore worth of securities to the 'Held to Maturity' category as permitted by the Reserve Bank of India last year. This shift resulted in the bank taking a loss of Rs128 crore.

The bank's operating profits also fell during the period by 8.85 per cent to Rs789.03 crore. This was on account of a 57 per cent drop in treasury income, to Rs148.90 crore. This also reflected in the bank's gross income, which dropped slightly to Rs2,447.98 crore from Rs2,465.78 crore in 2003-04.

But income from advances rose sharply during the year to Rs2,094 crore from Rs1,940.09 crore on the back of a credit expansion. Gross advances rose by 30 per cent during the year to Rs14,682.81 crore, powered by retail credit offtake. Gross expenditure rose to Rs1,658.95 crore from Rs1,600.14 crore earlier.

Though interest expenditure remained almost stable at Rs1,109.77 crore, operating expenditure rose sharply to Rs549.18 crore from Rs497.82 crore.

Kapur said that during the year, the bank was also able to make recoveries of over Rs200 crore. This helped bring down the gross NPA asset ratio to 2.94 per cent, down from the previous year's 3.44 per cent, and the net NPA ratio to less than one per cent. Kapur said that the bank intends to have 1,000 branches by the end of the current fiscal.

Last year, it had opened 45 branches. This year it plans to open branches in Singapore and Hong Kong. Vijaya Bank also intends to get a slice of the business opportunities in China and accordingly plans to open a representative office there initially, which would subsequently be upgraded into a branch, he added.
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Tata AIG doubles premium income
Mumbai: Tata AIG Life's total premium income grew by 101 per cent taking it to Rs494.6 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005, as compared to Rs246.2 crore last year.

Tata AIG covered 4,27,000 lives taking the total number of lives covered since inception to over twelve lakh. Under the rural and social initiative in the last fiscal, the company issued around 57,000 policies, of which around 41,000 were individual insurance policies from the rural sector.

In the social sector, the company has covered over 16,000 lives against an obligation to cover 15,000 lives. The company said nearly 85 per cent of the micro insurance policy holders purchased insurance for the first-time ever. The rural sector contributed 17.85 per cent of Tata AIG's policies, above the mandatory 14 per cent required of life insurance companies in the fourth year of operation.

In the past year, Tata AIG increased its capital base by Rs90 crore taking it to Rs321 crore.
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RBI wants banks to act on ombudsmen' rulings
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has directed the customer service committees of commercial banks to act on complaints on which the banking ombudsmen have already given a ruling. The RBI has issued this guideline after taking note that there were delays in taking action on complaints already resolved by the banking ombudsmen.

The Scheme of Banking Ombudsmen was introduced to enable resolution of complaints relating to customers and resolving disputes between banks. The ombudsmen examine the complaints and issues awards in respect of individual complaints to redress their grievances.

The RBI has directed banks to ensure that the decisions of the banking ombudsmen are implemented with the involvement of top officials. The RBI has also directed banks to place all the decisions by the ombudsmen before the customer service committee.

If a decision is not implemented within three months, the committee should be informed of the same. The committee should in turn inform the bank's board of such delays and also initiate remedial action.
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