1. Carry your ATM with you. All it weighs is 40 kg and you can be safe about the money and can show your clients how easy and safe it is. This is one of the products that have been developed by the Pune-based Axis Software Pvt Ltd.This pixie-sized ATMs have found clients in Africa. It is as similar to any other ATM, except its size, and carries out all the normal functions. It also has a GSM modem, automatic checker and a GPRS connection so that the user does not feel lost at any time. He said the company is also in talks with banks in the domestic market for these ATMs and it is expected to begin its installation by year-end.As part of its client base in Africa, Axis has also won an $5.5-million order from the Commonwealth Business Council, for deployment of ATMs in Africa.
2. HSBC plans to step up its SME business, which currently accounts for nearly 22 per cent of its asset book.The bank, which has roughly 30,000 customers in the small- and medium-sized segments, may consider scaling up its key product , depending on the opportunities emerging in the market.HSBC now allows an SME client to source up to Rs 35 lakh – an overdraft facility that may be whittled down to an amount as low as Rs 2 lakh subject to the client’s requirement.
3. The cataclysmic events of last Thursday and Friday in Europe and the US took their inevitable toll of Indian markets. The Sensex fell below 15,000 and the rupee dropped past 40.60 levels against the dollar. But, in a twist to the US and the European bond markets, yields on G-Secs rose to nearly eight per cent.There was some slippage in industrial production in June, although on a year-on-year basis for the June quarter, the fall was marginal. But there is no doubting the slowdown of the economy. Non-food bank credit is climbing after a negative first quarter, but this is likely inventory financing. Anecdotal reports do not speak of great buoyancy in new investments, which is not surprising, given the recent decline in business confidence. Thus, the increase in the MSS bonds issuing limits need set off no alarm bells on interest rates.
4. Public sector banks’ overall credit exposure to small and medium enterprises grew 25.81 per cent in fiscal year 2006-07 to Rs 1,84,589 crore, surpassing the minimum 20 per cent year-on-year growth targeted for this sector.SME credit exposure of PSBs (including the State Bank Group and IDBI Bank) stood at Rs 1,46,718 crore as on March 31, 2006. In fiscal 2005-06 also, the PSBs’ overall exposure to SME sector grew over 20 per cent. The policy package on stepping up credit to SME sector, announced in Parliament in August 2005, had set the objective of doubling the flow by 2009-10, within a period of five years.
5. Think of HSBC Bank in India and you may have this impression of a stiff upper lip, British style-bank, with bankers attired in classy suits, catering to the high and mighty in clipped English accent! That’s an image undergoing change. For a start, don’t be surprised if you hear these “foreign” bankers talk to you in your local language!Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, the bank’s country head, India, puts across the transformation process more graphically. She says, “We have moved from being seen earlier as a bird of paradise – so up there, sort of lucky if it touched you – to a horse – in the sense of being seen as vibrant, fast moving and strong. That’s a transition we have made with very strong marketing.”Nowhere is this more evident than in the bank’s increasing focus on the small and medium enterprise segment as well as retail borrowers.
6. Barclays India has launched the ‘Barclays Platinum Debit card’, which is an international debit card with a host of benefits.This includes cash withdrawal facilities and benefits on dining, golf, travel, shopping and other services.Barclays’ customers can spend up to Rs 1 lakh on their card per day and withdraw the same amount from an ATM per day. Customers travelling overseas can use the card to withdraw cash from 10 lakh ATMs and make purchases at 13 lakh stores.
7. SBI Cards, a joint venture between SBI and GE Money, expects to ramp up its geographical presence to 150 cities by end-March 2008.
8. Tata Capital and Tata Investments would jointly pick up a 4.5 per cent stake in Development Credit Bank (DCB) for around Rs 85 crore. The bank would make a preferential allotment of shares to five specific group of investors, including the Tatas, for Rs 300 crore.
9. DBRS, a Canada-based rating agency, has decided to set up operations in India and is working towards making its brand a familiar name in the country. The rating agency, which has a presence in North America and Europe, sees growing business opportunities in the fast growing economies especially in areas such as infrastructure finance.
10. The borrowings of the erstwhile Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) are still haunting ICICI Bank. After the government asked ICICI Bank to free it from the sovereign guarantee it had provided for ICICI’s outstanding borrowings of nearly Rs 3,400 crore, the country’s second-largest bank has now asked the government itself to suggest a way out. Development finance institution ICICI was merged with ICICI Bank in 2002. ICICI Bank, not keen on pre-paying the loans from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, has written to the government, seeking clarification as to what can replace a sovereign guarantee. The government wants ICICI Bank to either pre-pay the loans or arrange for equivalent alternative guarantees.
11. The Kerala High Court has asked the Reserve Bank of India to consider the representation by A T Jacob, a shareholder of Kochi-based Lord Krishna Bank (LKB), over its merger scheme with Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP). Disposing a writ petition by Jacob to declare the merger scheme null and void, judge Sirijagan said that the court didn’t want to intervene in the merger procedure as the petitioner had already approached the RBI seeking to declare the scheme null and void.
