1. Indian Bank has reported a net profit of Rs 307.5 crore in the October-December quarter which is 61 per cent higher than the Rs 190.5 crore recorded in the comparable quarter of last year.A significant contribution came from ‘other income’, which rose 72 per cent to Rs 300.59 crore from Rs 175.1 crore earlier. It is learnt that the bank has settled “a long-standing big ticket NPA issue” and has received a substantial sum from it.
2. The State Bank of India has assured exporters that dollar transactions with Iranian buyers can be settled through its six correspondent banks in Iran. Following the US ban on large Iranian banks, SBI had not been accepting letters of credit from Iranian importers for the past couple of months.
3. Interest rates could soften by 25 basis points to 50 basis points if there is no hike in the cash reserve ratio, said Mr Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC Bank, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Global Trade & Investment Conference of the Indian Merchants Chamber on Friday.
“India is a resilient economy but it is not completely immune to the global events. These global events will definitely affect us to a certain extent,” he said, addressing the conference. Mr Parekh said that India may not witness the flood of forex going forward as has been the case in the recent past because investors in India were cashing out and there was lot of redemption in the US.
“India is a resilient economy but it is not completely immune to the global events. These global events will definitely affect us to a certain extent,” he said, addressing the conference. Mr Parekh said that India may not witness the flood of forex going forward as has been the case in the recent past because investors in India were cashing out and there was lot of redemption in the US.
4. The foreign exchange reserves rose by $ 696 million to touch $2.76 billion for the week ended January 4, due to an increase in foreign currency assets.The reserves had increased by $2.837 billion in the previous week ended December 28, 2007.
5. IT trade body Nasscom has partnered with ICICI Bank to float a closed-ended fund with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore for investing in early stage companies and emerging technologies.
6. Certificate of Deposits issued by banks have vaulted over the past three years.The total amount of outstanding Certificate of Deposits (CDs) issued by banks in November 2007 stood at Rs 1,25,635 crore, around 80 per cent higher than Rs 67,694 crore in November 2006. That in turn was 130 per cent higher than the Rs 29,345 crore level at which it stood in November 2005. Market participants say that earlier only the nationalised banks and a few private banks were issuing CDs, but now many more banks are contributing to the increase in supply of CDs. They see its virtue in better balancing the maturity profile of their assets and liabilities .
7. Despite the rhetoric of financial inclusion, the top 100 centres in the country dominate in terms of credit and deposit.As per the ‘Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks – September 2007’ released by the RBI, today, the share of these centres has increased both year-on-year and sequentially from March 2007. The share of the top 100 centres in credit has gone up from 75.9 per cent in September 2005, to 76.7 per cent in September 2006 and to 77.2 in September 2007.
8. In an apparent bid to ensure that banking operations are not affected by the proposed countrywide strike by bank employees on January 25, the Centre has invited the representatives of the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU) and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for conciliatory talks on January 22.
9. Contrary to popular belief, it was a public sector bank that walked away with the award for the best use of information technology in retail banking at the IBA & TFCI: Banking Technology Awards 2007, held on January 9, in Mumbai. Corporation Bank was the winner in this category, followed by Axis Bank as the runner-up.Awards were given for 15 different categories and the winners included a cross-section of banks such as public sector banks, foreign banks, private banks and even co-operative banks.
10. Catholic Syrian Bank has selected Sun Microsystems to implement its core banking solution (CBS) that will help customers access the bank’s services through the Web, branch or ATMs (automated teller machines).
11. The Catholic Syrian Bank has been observing the current financial year 2007-08 as ‘Relationship Year’ and as part of this program it has been opening ATMs at main tourist and pilgrim centres in the country.
12. Life Insurance Corporation of India plans to tie up with management institutes to offer its employees a special MBA programme.
