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Rupee down 6 paise - securities decline
Mumbai: The rupee weakened against the dollar on Monday ending at 43.5450/55, weaker than Friday's close of 43.4850.

Forwards market: The 12-month premium closed at 1.38 per cent (1.35) and the 6-month closed at 1.60 per cent (1.54).

G-Secs: The 7.55 per cent 5-year 2010 paper closed at Rs103.20 (6.74 per cent YTM). The 7.37 per cent 9-year 2014 paper ended at Rs102.07 (7.05 per cent YTM), lower than Friday's close of Rs102.75/80 (6.94/95 per cent YTM). The 7.38 per cent 10-year benchmark paper was dealt at Rs102.20 (7.08 per cent YTM) against Friday's level of Rs103 (6.97 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent 12-year paper ended trade at Rs107.75/80 (7.08 YTM), lower from Friday's close of Rs108.60 (6.97 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates were between 5.05-5.75 per cent.

CBLO market: A total of 287 trades were put through in the rate range of 4.90-5.75 per cent, touching a record high of Rs12,456.20 crore.
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RBI eases NPA norms for urban co-op banks
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has said that urban co-operative banks (UCBs) will be allowed to apply the 180-day delinquency norm till March 31, 2006 for identification of NPAs in gold loans and small loans up to Rs1 lakh.

This move by the RBI is expected to give some relief to UCBs, which were required to move over to the 90-day delinquency norm for asset classification from the fiscal ended March 2004.

The RBI has also decided to permit unit banks (single-branch banks) and multi-branch banks operating within a single district, having deposits up to Rs100 crore, to classify NPAs based on 180-day delinquency norm instead of the existing norm of 90 days.

This relaxation will be in force for three years up to March 31, 2007. It will give relief to small banks in provisioning requirement with retrospective effect, that is, from the fiscal ended March 2005 and enable them to transit to the 90-day norm in a calibrated manner by the end of three years, an RBI release said.
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NHB refinance disbursements up at Rs.7,500 crore in 2004-05
New Delhi: The annual refinance disbursements of the National Housing Bank (NHB) touched an all-time high of Rs7,500 crore during 2004-05. This represents a 130.55 per cent increase over the level of Rs3,253 crore in 2003-04.

Rural housing accounted for 47 per cent of the annual refinance disbursements, according to a statement from NHB.

Cumulative refinance disbursements up to June 30 stood at Rs20,641 crore.

As on June 30, 2005, the balance sheet size of NHB is likely to be around Rs19,000 crore against Rs13,000 crore in 2003-04.

NHB has widened the scope of its project finance loan policy to include more types of borrowers under its direct financing window.
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AIBEA employees to ask Govt. to act on corporate delinquency
Chennai: The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has urged the central government to take severe action against the increasing bad loans in the banking industry, and intends to present its demands to the government on Bank Nationalisation Day, July 19.

AIBEA intends to raise three main issues with the government. First of all it will ask the govt. to publish a list of big loan defaulters. It will ask the govt. to amend the Securitisation Act in order to cover the attachment of the personal properties of the borrowers in addition to attachment of the company properties. It will also demand that wilful default of loans should be treated as a criminal offence which currently is considered a civil offence.

The association has said that if the government does not take serious action on the growing bad debts, AIBEA will call for an all India strike to focus the attention of the people to this act of serious corporate delinquency

Amounts written off as bad loans grew to Rs11,074 crore in 2004-05 from Rs9,039 crore. In 2003-04, amounts provided for bad loans by public sector banks was Rs14,353 crore which is 36 per cent of their profits of Rs39,498 crore.
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