1. Forex reserves were up by $1.307 billion to touch $262.450 billion, for the week ended October 26, according to figures released by the Reserve Bank of India. The rise was mainly on account of currency revaluation. The gain was lower than the previous week’s rise of $4.457 billion, when the forex reserves touched $ 261.143 billion. Forex reserves have been rising for over two months now. It has also been aided by the Reserve Bank of India buying dollars to keep the rupee from appreciating.
2. Corporate India may be reporting good profit numbers. But lending money didn’t make much for public sector banks as a group in the second quarter ended September 30. Their net interest income (or interest earned less interest expense) did not grow at all in this quarter. Yet profits grew 23 per cent for a set of 21 public sector banks for which the figures are available.It was liquidation of some of their equity investments, cashing in on the stock market boom, some recoveries of old bad debts, some treasury gains from the bond and forex markets and some other non-interest income that rescued public sector banks this quarter. Other income grew 45 per cent for these banks contributing almost the entire profits for this quarter.
3. Dhanalakshmi Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 13.50 crore during the half year ended September 30 as compared to Rs 7.02 crore for the previous corresponding period, registering a growth of 92.31 per cent. The operating profit increased from Rs 16.65 crore to Rs 25.04 crore. The total income increased from Rs128.08 crore to Rs170.73 crore. The total deposits increased from Rs 2,643 crore to Rs 3,247 crore , while total advances moved up from Rs 1,776 crore to Rs 1,978 crore .
4. Birla Sun Life Insurance has registered 94 per cent growth in new business premium at Rs 585 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal.The company would grow faster than the life insurance industry this fiscal. It hopes to end the year with a growth of 150-170 per cent in new business premium. The industry is expected to end the fiscal with a growth rate of 50-60 per cent.
5. For the first time, the market share of Life Insurance Corporation of India, the first year premium income fell below 50 per cent in September to 49 per cent, compared with 79.6 per cent a year ago, and 74.5 per cent in August, according to the data compiled by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. The sharp fall in market share was on account of a 47.4 per cent year-on-year decline in LIC’s first year premium income to Rs 2,555 crore in September.
6. The World Bank has signed three loan agreements with India for total assistance of $944 million towards three projects in the critical areas of rural finance, vocational training and restoration of water bodies.The loan agreements are for strengthening of rural credit cooperatives involving a loan assistance of $600 million, vocational education training project with assistance of $280 million and additional financing for the Karnataka Community-based Tank Management project involving $64 million loan and credit.
7. To tap the transport and energy financing market, German bank NORD/LB plans to set up an office in India shortly. The representative office, to come up in Mumbai, is expected to commence operations in January 2008.
8. Central Bank of India plans to launch the reverse mortgage scheme for the senior citizens. “We are ready to launch the product soon, but we are just waiting for the taxation issues to get resolved,” said Ms H. A. Daruwalla, its Chairperson and Managing Director.Reverse mortgage is a stream of loan payments against the homeowner’s net equity stake in the property. In this scheme, the lending institution gives the borrower a fixed sum of money on monthly basis. The borrower can also choose to take a lump sum payment.
9. Karur Vysya Bank has introduced yet another variant of its multi-city current account product – KVB Economy.The other variants include KVB Standard, KVB Classic, KVB Premium, KVB Gold and KVB Platinum. The major difference in opting for a particular variant of this product is in the maintenance of the minimum average balance. KVB Economy, according to a release, would require current account holders to maintain a minimum average balance of Rs 10,000.
10. Bank of Baroda is planning to raise about Rs 2,500-3,000 crore by January to meet capital requirements under Basel II norms and for further growth in business. The bank is yet to decide on whether the capital would be tier-I or tier- II.
