1. `SBI Tiny', the no-frills account targeting villagers, has been launched by the SBI , in Medak district of AP. As part of its financial inclusion strategy, officials will help villagers open accounts at their doorstep. The bank had recently launched it on a pilot basis in Mizoram.
2. UTI Bank has rolled out its first priority banking lounge in Pune. The bank would be introducing this facility in four more places in the country by the end of the current fiscal. The lounge was an innovative concept wherein priority banking services would be displayed on an experimental basis. It will be of a boutique banking branch for HNW customers offering a one-stop shop for their banking and investment needs. Earlier, the bank had entered into the wealth management sector and followed it up with priority banking and had recently entered the private banking segment. Other products such as wealth advisory service, credit cards, loans (personal, auto, home etc) would also be offered.
3. BoB proposes to finalise three joint venture partners by the end of this financial year for the credit card, asset management and the life insurance business.
4. BOB received the RBI's permission to open second office in Johannesburg, South Africa. It has also sought permission from the Chinese Banking Regulator to upgrade its representative office in Guangzhou. Currently, the bank has 60 international offices. In addition, the bank also plans to step up its presence in southern India from the current level of 265 branches to 300 branches. These include dedicated SME branches in Tiruppur and Chennai.
5. Dena Bank is expecting a significant fall in the net non-performing assets level in the third quarter of this fiscal.
6. Canara Bank has set a new benchmark, securing the finest pricing by any Indian financial institution in the global debt markets for its $250-mn medium term note (MTN). It got a pricing of 129 bps over the six month LIBOR. But the effective pricing after a fixed to floating rate swap was 125 bps over LIBOR. This was well below the initially targeted price band of 129-131 bps. The bank received an overwhelming response for its MTN issue, the first international capital issue in its 100-year history. It was rated +Baa2+ by Moody's.
7.Kalpataru Grameena Bank has been adjudged the Best Regional Rural Bank for 2005-06.
8. The microfinance sector in India has not reached its full growth even 15 years after its emergence because of slow policy processes. There is a need to evolve uniform regulations and a single regulatory body for the sector and legislate so that all confusions are laid to rest. It is hoped that the Bill on microfinance that is expected to be tabled in the Parliament session opening tomorrow will take care of these issues.
9. RBI must create an enabling environment (rather than setting mandatory farm credit targets and sub-targets) for Rural Financial Institutions to deepen and widen credit outreach covering small/marginal/tenant farmers, share croppers and landless labourers. The World Bank alone committed over $16 bn to these efforts from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s; other donors also have spent substantial amounts. In several countries, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Sri Lanka, supply-led and directed credit programmes were used extensively to spur agricultural development till the 1990s.
2. UTI Bank has rolled out its first priority banking lounge in Pune. The bank would be introducing this facility in four more places in the country by the end of the current fiscal. The lounge was an innovative concept wherein priority banking services would be displayed on an experimental basis. It will be of a boutique banking branch for HNW customers offering a one-stop shop for their banking and investment needs. Earlier, the bank had entered into the wealth management sector and followed it up with priority banking and had recently entered the private banking segment. Other products such as wealth advisory service, credit cards, loans (personal, auto, home etc) would also be offered.
3. BoB proposes to finalise three joint venture partners by the end of this financial year for the credit card, asset management and the life insurance business.
4. BOB received the RBI's permission to open second office in Johannesburg, South Africa. It has also sought permission from the Chinese Banking Regulator to upgrade its representative office in Guangzhou. Currently, the bank has 60 international offices. In addition, the bank also plans to step up its presence in southern India from the current level of 265 branches to 300 branches. These include dedicated SME branches in Tiruppur and Chennai.
5. Dena Bank is expecting a significant fall in the net non-performing assets level in the third quarter of this fiscal.
6. Canara Bank has set a new benchmark, securing the finest pricing by any Indian financial institution in the global debt markets for its $250-mn medium term note (MTN). It got a pricing of 129 bps over the six month LIBOR. But the effective pricing after a fixed to floating rate swap was 125 bps over LIBOR. This was well below the initially targeted price band of 129-131 bps. The bank received an overwhelming response for its MTN issue, the first international capital issue in its 100-year history. It was rated +Baa2+ by Moody's.
7.Kalpataru Grameena Bank has been adjudged the Best Regional Rural Bank for 2005-06.
8. The microfinance sector in India has not reached its full growth even 15 years after its emergence because of slow policy processes. There is a need to evolve uniform regulations and a single regulatory body for the sector and legislate so that all confusions are laid to rest. It is hoped that the Bill on microfinance that is expected to be tabled in the Parliament session opening tomorrow will take care of these issues.
9. RBI must create an enabling environment (rather than setting mandatory farm credit targets and sub-targets) for Rural Financial Institutions to deepen and widen credit outreach covering small/marginal/tenant farmers, share croppers and landless labourers. The World Bank alone committed over $16 bn to these efforts from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s; other donors also have spent substantial amounts. In several countries, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Sri Lanka, supply-led and directed credit programmes were used extensively to spur agricultural development till the 1990s.
