1. ING Vysya Bank has approved the raising of upper tier two capital through unlisted yen denominated bonds from the parent ING N V. The amount would be equivalent to Rs 100 crs and the bond would have a tenure of 15 years with a call option at the end of 10 years. ING is the first bank to raise capital funds through Yen bonds.
2. SBI, Madurai Zone signed an agreement with Southern Railway, for installation of ATMs in eight railway stations in
3. PNB Housing Finance Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the PNB, will be promoting cluster financing to facilitate housing loans while upping the disbursals from Rs 600 crs in the current year to Rs 700 crs in the forthcoming fiscal. To implement this strategy, the company will focus on tying up with leading builders across the country, and is already in talks with some builders in Pune, including Pride Purple, Kumar Developers and Lunkad Developers. It has also tied up with Tata AIG to insure the life of the borrower, and will also offer the single premium amount as loan. In addition, it has tied up with IFFCO Tokio to insure the property for the amount it will require to re-construct the house in case of damage, plus offer accident (disability) insurance cover to the borrower.
4. The growth of the non-life sector is on track and has not been blighted by the free-pricing regime, which came into being on January 1. Earlier, fire, engineering and motor lines were under tariff or administered rates. According to IRDA data, the gross premium underwritten by non-life insurers in January has registered a growth of 25.7% to Rs 2,202 crs against Rs 1,751 crs in the previous year. In the first ten months of the fiscal, the premium jumped by 23% from Rs 17,530 crs to Rs 20,378 crs.
5. IOB has decided to upgrade two of its extension counters in Mangalore to full-fledged branches.
6. ICICI Bank is seeing a slowdown in the growth of its retail loans to 20% this fiscal, against the previous year's jump of 40%. In the past five years, it has seen a growth of 40% in retail loans which has slowed down to 20% this fiscal. The interest rate increases through the year have reduced the incremental growth in disbursements. The growth of retail loans will, however, be sustained at 20-25 % next fiscal.
7. As part of its drive to offer computer-based new and innovative products, South Indian Bank has introduced the consumer friendly National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system. The NEFT offers an efficient, secure, economical, reliable and expeditious system to transfer funds from one customer account of a NEFT participant of a bank branch to another customer account of another NEFT participant bank branch anywhere in
8. UTI Bank has opened two new branches in Andhra Pradesh at Bapatla and Narsaropet. It has a network of 461 branches, 53 extension counters and 2,243 ATMs across the country. Its centralised database enables customers to operate their accounts from anywhere in the country.
9. PNB has come forward to supplement farmers' income by launching the PNB Sampurn Rin Yojana scheme. Under this scheme, farmers are provided credit for meeting expenditure on growing crops, rearing animals, purchase of farm assets like pump sets, tractors and other farm equipments. The bank has been ranked No. 1 among nationalised banks for giving agricultural credit to the tune of Rs 16,569.70 crs as on September 2006. As part of its social obligations, the bank runs training centres for farmers in different parts of the country.
10. In its bid to enhance presence in the southern region, Allahabad Bank has renewed its effort to acquire a bank with a good branch network. Its earlier attempt in this regard did not make much headway. Its attention has been drawn to two private banks on sale but the prices being quoted appear to be rather high. It is also open to acquiring a small public sector bank in the south and that such an acquisition will help achieve synergy in operation for both the banks.
