1. The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $2.225 billion to $303.460 billion for the week ended March 7 on account of revaluation of currency assets, said dealers. The reserves had gone up by $6.625 billion to touch $301.235 billion for the week ended February 29, said the Weekly Statistical Supplement from the Reserve Bank of India. The foreign currency assets grew by $2.221 billion at $293.471 billion. Foreign currency assets, as expressed in dollars, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation in non-US currencies (euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves. The reserves in gold remained unchanged at $9.558 billion while that in IMF went up by $4 million at $431 million.
2. Vijaya Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding with credit rating agency, Crisil, for rating its corporate customers. A bank release said here corporate customers would now be able to have their loan exposures rated by Crisil at a concessional fee. The release said that the rating would be mutually beneficial to both bank and the customers, after migration to the Basel II regime. Vijaya Bank is expected to become Basel II compliant from September. Well rated borrowers would be in a position to borrow at lower rates.
3. Non-food credit increased for the fortnight ended February 29 by Rs 39,988 crore to touch Rs 22,06,902 crore, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s Weekly Statistical Supplement.
4. India is getting ready for the reverse mortgage market, but it could be sometime before demand for the product begins to emerge. Given the population’s age profile, family system or living arrangement and geographic dispersal of the target group, it could be early days in India for the reverse mortgage market, according to a report from Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consultancy firm.
5. The Syndicate Bank Staff Association (SBSA) has urged the Centre to publish a white paper on merger of banks saying that this phenomenon has become a daily affair.Mr K.S. Bhat, All India Secretary of SBSA, said that bank mergers were taking place without any blueprint ad principle. The current merger process, he said, “has no far-sightedness and is against the principle of Mass Banking”.The Indian Banks Association’s stand before the negotiation table with UFBU is absolutely wrong and unbelievable, he remarked.
6. Write-downs from sub-prime-tied securities will probably rise to $285 billion, or $20 billion more than S&P’s forecast of $265 billion, two months ago, according to the global rating agency Standard & Poor’s. However, the agency said write-downs by the world’s financial institutions on debt linked to sub-prime mortgages might end soon. “The valuation write-downs of sub-prime asset-backed securities (ABS) — primarily collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) of ABS but also sub-prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) — could reach $285 billion for the global financial sector,” said the report.
7. State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) will raise Rs 900 crore capital through upper tier II and tier I route in about a week to meet the Basel II compliance requirements by the end of this month and for operational flexibility.“The formalities are under way and we hope to complete the process by March 24,” Mr Amitabha Guha, Managing Director, SBH.
8. United Bank of India is tying up with Kotak Mahindra to sell mutual funds. UBI currently has tie-ups with five asset management companies, including UTI, HDFC, Franklin Templeton, Reliance and ICICI Prudential for selling mutual fund schemes. “The tie up with Kotak Mahindra has been finalised and we will sign an MoU with them within two-three weeks. It will ink similar deals with four other companies shortly.
9. IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd, a financial services provider, and Union Bank of India on Thursday announced a strategic tie-up to offer the former’s online trading platform to the bank’s customers. Through this tie up, the bank’s customers can invest in equities, mutual funds and initial public offers using the online trading platform of IDBI Capital.
Any customer of Union Bank, at any of its CBS branches, can use this online trading platform from any place through Internet.
10. A year ago, ICICI Bank’s Managing Director, Mr K.V. Kamath, said the investment pipeline of corporate India was of the order of $400 to $500 billion (or about Rs 20 lakh crore). About six weeks ago, he revised that estimate to about $750 billion (Rs 30 lakh crore). He also added that a bulk of this would come from companies themselves. And, importantly, added that the Indian growth story would continue for another 15 years.
2. Vijaya Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding with credit rating agency, Crisil, for rating its corporate customers. A bank release said here corporate customers would now be able to have their loan exposures rated by Crisil at a concessional fee. The release said that the rating would be mutually beneficial to both bank and the customers, after migration to the Basel II regime. Vijaya Bank is expected to become Basel II compliant from September. Well rated borrowers would be in a position to borrow at lower rates.
3. Non-food credit increased for the fortnight ended February 29 by Rs 39,988 crore to touch Rs 22,06,902 crore, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s Weekly Statistical Supplement.
4. India is getting ready for the reverse mortgage market, but it could be sometime before demand for the product begins to emerge. Given the population’s age profile, family system or living arrangement and geographic dispersal of the target group, it could be early days in India for the reverse mortgage market, according to a report from Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consultancy firm.
5. The Syndicate Bank Staff Association (SBSA) has urged the Centre to publish a white paper on merger of banks saying that this phenomenon has become a daily affair.Mr K.S. Bhat, All India Secretary of SBSA, said that bank mergers were taking place without any blueprint ad principle. The current merger process, he said, “has no far-sightedness and is against the principle of Mass Banking”.The Indian Banks Association’s stand before the negotiation table with UFBU is absolutely wrong and unbelievable, he remarked.
6. Write-downs from sub-prime-tied securities will probably rise to $285 billion, or $20 billion more than S&P’s forecast of $265 billion, two months ago, according to the global rating agency Standard & Poor’s. However, the agency said write-downs by the world’s financial institutions on debt linked to sub-prime mortgages might end soon. “The valuation write-downs of sub-prime asset-backed securities (ABS) — primarily collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) of ABS but also sub-prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) — could reach $285 billion for the global financial sector,” said the report.
7. State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) will raise Rs 900 crore capital through upper tier II and tier I route in about a week to meet the Basel II compliance requirements by the end of this month and for operational flexibility.“The formalities are under way and we hope to complete the process by March 24,” Mr Amitabha Guha, Managing Director, SBH.
8. United Bank of India is tying up with Kotak Mahindra to sell mutual funds. UBI currently has tie-ups with five asset management companies, including UTI, HDFC, Franklin Templeton, Reliance and ICICI Prudential for selling mutual fund schemes. “The tie up with Kotak Mahindra has been finalised and we will sign an MoU with them within two-three weeks. It will ink similar deals with four other companies shortly.
9. IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd, a financial services provider, and Union Bank of India on Thursday announced a strategic tie-up to offer the former’s online trading platform to the bank’s customers. Through this tie up, the bank’s customers can invest in equities, mutual funds and initial public offers using the online trading platform of IDBI Capital.
Any customer of Union Bank, at any of its CBS branches, can use this online trading platform from any place through Internet.
10. A year ago, ICICI Bank’s Managing Director, Mr K.V. Kamath, said the investment pipeline of corporate India was of the order of $400 to $500 billion (or about Rs 20 lakh crore). About six weeks ago, he revised that estimate to about $750 billion (Rs 30 lakh crore). He also added that a bulk of this would come from companies themselves. And, importantly, added that the Indian growth story would continue for another 15 years.
