1. All loans, including existing home loans, offered by SBI will be priced higher from Monday. This follows the 0.5% point increase in the benchmark Prime Lending Rate. The benchmark PLR (referred to as SBAR) has been revised upwards to 12.75% from 12.25% pa, effective April 9. Although the mark up in rates by SBI follows others such as ICICI Bank, HDFC and Bank of Baroda, the quantum of the increase has been lower than its peers, who have marked up their rates by 75 to 100 bps.
2. IDBI Bank Ltd has proposed setting up a private equity fund and a mutual fund as separate subsidiaries in a bid to become a complete financial powerhouse.
3. Centurion Bank of
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5. Vijaya Bank proposes to enter into insurance business directly after it finalises its exit from the three-way life insurance joint venture that it had entered into along with Principal Financial Group of the US and PNB.
6. PNB plans to cut exposure to personal loans, including home finance, to bridge the gap between higher credit offtake and lower deposits. The bank is concerned over widening gap between resource mobilisation and credit expansion.
7. Bank of India said it will promote folk artistes in the country. It has planned to set up an art trust to provide patronage to the folk artistes and would work in cooperation with National Institute of Fashion Design and SIDBI for upgradation of their skills.
8. Armed miscreants looted Rs 1.75 lakh from PNB in naxalite-affected Imamganj bloc in
9. RBI was in the process of identifying illiquid government bonds for buyback and issuing liquid gilts. The aim behind this buyback was to make the gilt yield curve more liquid.
10. Dena Bank is aiming at further reduction in its gross non-performing assets (NPA) during the financial year 2007-08. The gross NPAs and net NPAs stood at Rs 857 crs and Rs 414 crs respectively. It has set a target to bring down our gross NPAs from the existing 4% to 2% this year.
11. Mid-corporates, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and agriculture are driving SBI’s credit growth even as retail loans are losing steam. SBI ’s year-on-year credit growth has slowed to around 25% at the end of March 2007 from 29 % a year earlier. The slowdown in retail loans is sharper. The largest bank’s growth in retail loans has slowed to nearly 20% from 27% a year earlier.
12. Union Bank of
13. As many as 18 public sector banks have defaulted in filing their monthly statements of Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) collections till January, 2006-07. Under the BCTT scheme, banks are required to furnish branch-wise details of BCTT collected every month to Income Tax department.
14. International brokerage house
