1.Syndicate Bank is striving to enhance its customer base and do mass banking. The bank had in the last 11 months opened two million new accounts. Its total customer base has touched 19.5 mn and it is planning to add another 3 mn accounts in the coming fiscal.
2. Oriental Bank of Commerce , Canara Bank and HSBC are likely to come together for a new initiative on the insurance front. Sources said that a formal announcement is likely to be made in this regard on Monday in the presence of the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram.
3. Oriental Bank of Commerce has tied up with the Bhartiya Vikas Trust for the Solar Energy Promotion and Development Programme.Under SPDP, OBC and the BVT will train bank branch managers in financing solar energy projects; conduct entrepreneurship development programme and organise awareness camps at panchayat level. Sample solar installations would be provided free-of-cost to select villagers. Both have also agreed to set up a solar innovation and promotion centre in Rajasthan.
4. Although nationalised banks are institutions under Union Government, they did not cease to be establishments for purpose of definition of term "industrial establishment" under TN Industrial Establishment (Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen) Act, 1981, the Madras High Court has ruled. Hearing writ appeals by temporary sub-staff of SBI challenging order of single judge holding that nationalised banks were exempted from operation of TN Shops & Establishments Act and hence they were not governed by Permanent Status Act, the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Mr Justice K. Chandru, held that the Permanent Status Act would apply to banks, including nationalised ones. Setting aside the order of single judge, the Bench directed the single judge to decide afresh the issue of permanency in accordance with law.
5. Syndicate Bank is using its five RRBs to reinforce itself in the rural areas. It has undertaken the effort of cleaning up the ponds in villages for a social cause. Last month, it asked each of the RRBs to clean 20 ponds each in a village. It has so far completed the work in 100 ponds. This has resulted in recharging the ground water sources and making good water available to the local populace. Having successfully completed the cleaning of 100 ponds in one month, the bank is planning to push the initiative in a big way. It intends to clean up more than 1,000 ponds in 2007-08. We are not looking for Government support or aid. Our intention is to rejuvenate the water resources and make water usable in
6. India's biggest private sector bank, ICICI Bank Ltd, has decided to redefine itself to raise funds for its subsidiaries.The bank's board has approved a proposal to set up a new fully owned subsidiary, ICICI Holdings ,and transfer to the entity, its investments in the insurance and mutual fund subsidiaries. Ihe bank said its investments in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company and Prudential ICICI Trust Ltd would be transferred to ICICI Holdings, subject to the approval of the RBI and the IRDA.The new holding company may consider a public issue of its equity shares at an appropriate time, but the bank would retain the majority stake. It currently holds around 74% stake each in ICICI Prudential and ICICI Lombard and 51 % in ICICI AMC and ICICI Trust. The book value of the holdings is currently around Rs 1,950 crs.
7. The City Union Bank has introduced `CUB 399', a deposit scheme that would yield interest at 9.25% pa for the general category and an additional 50 bps (9.75%) for senior citizens. The duration would be for 399 days.There was good response for this limited period offer scheme rolled out on March 1. Basically, it is in the nature of a fixed deposit. Interest is payable monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annual or on maturity depending on the option of the depositor. However, if a depositor opts to pre-close the account, no interest would be paid for the first 30 days and for the remaining period, but the bank would pay interest at 3.5% (Savings Bank rate). CUB 399 is an addition to its existing special deposit schemes - CUB 400+ and CUB 600+.
8. Karur Vysya Bank has launched KVB 600, a new deposit scheme targeted at senior citizens. Under the scheme, senior citizens would be paid interest at the rate of 10% pa (the annualised yield would however be around 10.68%), while the other depositors get 9.5% (annualised yield 10.11%) on deposits of 600 days tenure. While both the cumulative and fixed deposit options are available, the bank has fixed the minimum deposit at Rs 10,000.
9. The country's forex reserves rose $4.212 bn to $193.124 bn on strong FII inflows into the domestic equity market for the week ended Feb 23. Forex reserves have increased for the seventh consecutive week with foreign currency assets increasing by $4.213 bn to $186.128 bn. The reserves had climbed by $3.834 bn to $188.912 bn during the week ended Feb 16.
10. Vijaya Bank has now decided to raise capital only through a Tier-II bond offering. The bank had earlier indicated that it would raise capital of about Rs 500 crs through a mix of Tier-I and Tier-II capital. It had even looked at a perpetual debt instrument for raising Tier-I capital. It will hit the market before end March. It will be a mix of upper and lower Tier-II. It plans to raise at least Rs 300 crs. It would be a subordinated bond.
