1. LIC Housing Finance has hiked its lending rates by 1.25% for floating and fixed rate loans. The floating rate has inched up to 11.25% onwards from the earlier 10 % and the fixed rate has increased to 11.75% onwards from 10.5%.
2. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has infused Rs 245 crs and taken its capital base to a total of Rs 2,060 crs, the highest among the domestic life insurers. This was the fourth equity hike in the last financial year. The two promoters, ICICI Bank and Prudential plc, contributed to the capital in their existing proportions of 74:26, respectively.
3. Tirupur knitwear exporters said the surge in bank lending rates, following last week's RBI hikes on repo rates and cash reserve ratio (CRR), will adversely impact exports, especially garment shipments. The increased rate on borrowing would render exports uncompetitive as in most cases the garment exporters negotiate their export prices-based on the then prevailing production cost.
4. PNB has received an in-principle approval from the
5. Vijaya Bank has reported total business of Rs 62,232 crs for FY07, a 39% increase over FY06. The growth was well above the targeted Rs 55,000 crs for last financial year. Deposits showed 35% growth and advances grew 46% in FY07 over FY06. FY07 saw advances of Rs 24,852 crs and deposits of Rs 36,000 crs. About 31% of its deposits came from current and savings accounts during the period. In FY07, the bank made cash recoveries of Rs 288 crs, which is expected to contribute to its bottom line.
6. In an effort to check the misuse of export credit by small exporters who benefit from the interest rate arbitrage between low-interest currencies and the Indian rupee, the RBI has asked banks to ensure that the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations are not violated during such transactions. An RBI directive has asked banks to be careful in giving guarantees against export advances and has told them to verify the exporter’s record to assess his ability to execute such orders. Many exporters with low export turnover were receiving large amounts as export advances in currencies with lower interest rates against domestic bank guarantees. The exporters were depositing such advances with banks in Indian rupee to take advantage of the interest rate arbitrage. Further, the guarantees were being issued even before the advances were received, with a condition that they would be operational only after getting the funds, the RBI said. The guarantees are issued at par value, against the discounted values of the export advances.
7. With an aim to improve the performance of its employees, Jammu and Kashmir Bank has announced a new package of incentives and promotion opportunities. The the employee-oriented issues must include recruitment, development and learning, work environment and communication, rewards and recognition, health, balancing work and personal life and financial security. The new package, 'Nai Subah', is aimed at initiating the much desired cultural change in the bank to make it an employer of choice. The incentives include skill advancement programmes, pay enhancement, mass promotions, an improved transfer policy, increase in variable and revamped performance management system, regularisation of all ad hoc employees, a new generation organisational set up and designations and foreign tours. Under the skill development programme, the bank would lay stress on behavioural and technical training and train its employees in new skills to keep with the industry, fine tune their job skills and learn to work independently.
8. The ICICI Bank will be locating the back office operations of the Southern region of the country in Hyderabad Financial District. The bank is constructing a 28-storied centre in the district at an investment of Rs 1,500 crs. The bank's
9. BoB, the fifth largest bank in
10. Central Bank of
11. The ICICI Bank will be establishing 14 finance chairs in 14 business schools across the country. Under this initiative, the Bank will sponsor the salaries of chair professor and an assistant professor at the B-school. The initiative might cost ICICI Bank over Rs 13 lakh considering the salary of a professor in these institutes is around Rs 50,000 and that of an assistant professor is over 35000. The chairs will be established to take up research activities in the field of finance. Few of the institutes where ICICI Bank would be establishing the finance chairs include SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, Welingkar Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal and Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. ICICI Bank is also said to be in talks with IIM Ahmedabad to provide them with support in finance content and curriculum development.
12. Crisil is organising a two-day executive training programme, `Real estate financing, the golden goose or Damocles' sword?" on April 20-21 at Hotel The Leela Palace,
13. The UTI Bank board will meet on April 17 to decide on P J Nayak's offer to step down as CMD after July 31 since RBI has turned down the bank's proposal to grant him a further two-year extension without splitting the CMD's post. UTI Bank has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it will make public its future course of action after the board meeting. On February 20, the bank's board had reappointed Nayak for a further two-year term starting August 1.
14. If there is one indicator that stock market analysts watch closely, it is advance taxes. That is because this number indicates what kind of financial results a company is likely to post. And these numbers have it that SBI has pipped LIC to emerge as the highest corporate taxpayer in the country. For 2006-07, SBI paid Rs 2,670 crs as advance tax a 71% growth over the previous year. LIC, on the other hand, paid Rs 2,000 crs in corporate taxes, up 11% over last year.
