Globe Infowire

SBI To Lend Rs 1,400 Cr To Damodar Valley

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:01:37 +0000

Mumbai

State Bank of India has decided to lend Rs 1,400 crore to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to part-fund its 500-MW Bokaro Thermal Power Station (A) Project.

SBI’s associate banks will also lend Rs 1,000 crore to the project, said a bank statement.

The Rs 3,500-crore project will have a debt-equity ratio of 70:30. It would replace the old and abandoned 247-MW Thermal Power Plant which was built in 1953. The Bokaro Unit is expected to be commissioned in April 2014.

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J&K Bank Eyes Rs 1 Lakh-Crore Business, Rs 1,000-Cr Profit In This Fiscal

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:58:16 +0000

Satya Narayan Iyer & K.Ram Kumar / Mumbai

The Hindu Business Line

The Jammu & Kashmir Bank has set its sights on achieving two milestones in the current fiscal. It aims to clock a total business of Rs 1 lakh crore and earn a net profit of Rs 1,000 crore, said a top bank official.

In the past fiscal, the 74-year-old private sector bank’s total business (deposits and advances) grew by 22 per cent from Rs 70,864 crore to Rs 86,419 crore. Net profit was up 30.57 per cent to Rs 803 crore in the fiscal (Rs 615 crore in fiscal 2011).

According to Mr Mushtaq Ahmed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, retail lending would be a thrust area for the bank. The bank’s home, Jammu & Kashmir, is a rich source of low cost current account and savings accounts (CASA) and provides opportunities for deployment of funds towards meeting priority sector lending targets.

Currently, the bank sources 70 per cent of its deposits from J&K. Overall, CASA deposits were steady at 41 per cent of the total deposits of 53,342 crore as at March-end.

When it comes to loans, non-home States account for 63 per cent of the total of Rs 33,078 crore.

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SKS Microfinance Hopes New Law To Revive Growth By Easing Loan Recovery

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:55:33 +0000

Mumbai

Economic Times

SKS Microfinance, India’s largest publicly-traded lender to the poor, says proposed legislation will spur a revival by easing loan recovery just as mounting losses force it to curtail operations.

The draft law would let microcredit companies improve debt collection and may also help raise funds, chief financial officer S Dilli Raj said in an interview. The Hyderabad-based lender’s loss last quarter widened almost fivefold, prompting it to cut jobs and shut branches. The stock is down 94% from a September 2010 peak.

SKS, backed by Sequoia Capital, forecasts relief from a bill approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet last week that would enable the Reserve Bank of India to regulate the industry. SKS has reported five consecutive quarters of losses after the southern state of Andhra Pradesh curtailed debt recovery, capped interest rates and waived loans to arrest a spate of suicides by farmers unable to make payments.

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Electronic Payments Up, But Cheque Transactions Higher

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:52:59 +0000

Arvind Jayaram

The Hindu Business Line

Cheques are still the preferred mode for making high value transactions in the country, RBI data shows. Use of electronic payment systems gained traction in 2011-12, but the volume and value of transactions was far less than cheque payments.

Cheque payments amounted to a whopping Rs 98.9 lakh crore, against the Rs 22 lakh crore paid using the electronic medium in 2011-12.

Over 115.9 crore credit card, debit card, electronic clearing services (ECS) and national electronic fund transfers (NEFT) took place during the year. This was a tad lower than the 134.1 crore payments made through cheques.

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Royal Bank Of Canada, Credit Suisse Eyes Bank Of America Merrill Lynch’s Non-US Wealth Arm

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:50:15 +0000

Singapore / Hong Kong

Economic Times

Royal Bank of Canada and Credit Suisse are a mong the suitors seeking to bid for the non-US wealth management businesses of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, sources told Reuters, in a deal that could be worth around $2 b i l lion.

Swiss bank Julius Baer is also looking to bid for part of the BofA wealth businesses on sale, the sources said. Reuters reported last month that BofA put its non-U.S. wealth division up for sale, a deal that includes units in Asia excluding Japan, Europe and the Middle East and Latin America.

The auction is another case of consolidation in the wealth management industry and comes as BofA is trying to re-focus the bank after its plunge in value following the financial crisis.

Bank of America, which sources say has received non-binding bids for the units, is selling the wealth division because it is too small and has failed to produce significant profits. The non-U.S. business manages about $90 billion of an estimated $2 trillion that the BofA wealth division oversees globally.

The BofA auction is the biggest deal in the wealth management industry since ING Group sold off its private banking assets in Europe and Asia in 2010 for about $1.9 billion.

Some earlier estimates had put the BofA deal value at as much as $3 billion, though sources said this week that a $1.5 billion-$2 billion price tag may be more realistic.

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IndiaFirst Life To expand ‘Autolife’ Scheme

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:48:13 +0000

G.Naga Sridhar / Hyderabad

The Hindu Business Line

IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company is planning to expand its pilot life insurance scheme for vehicle buyers. The pilot, called ‘Autolife’, was launched in association with Varun Motors in Andhra Pradesh in January.

“The response has been good. We sold 2,000 policies within 100 days of launch and we will expand this to about six States,” Mr P. Nandagopal, Chief Executive Officer, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, told Business Line here. The product will offer life insurance cover up to Rs 20 lakh in four different options as pure protection plan for vehicle buyers at the time purchase.

TIE-UPS

The product would soon be sold in Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka, he said adding: “We want to have about one lakh members under this product by this year end.”

The company, a joint venture of Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank and the UK’s Legal and General, is also looking at expanding its tie-up with regional rural banks to ramp up its distribution channel.

“At present, we have collaboration with 10 RRBs. We are looking at tying up with at least 10 more banks,” Mr Nandagopal added.

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LIC Launches Its First Online, Immediate Annuity Plan

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:46:11 +0000

Falaknaaz Syed / Mumbai

Financial Chronicle

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched its first online product, Jeevan Akshay VI, an immediate annuity product, on Thursday.

While private players have been selling insurance products online for past three years, LIC is taking the first step into online space.

On payment of a lump sum, a policyholder is entitled to an annuity from the very next month under any one of the seven annuity options chosen by him. The options are annuity payable for life at a uniform rate, annuity payable for five, 10, 15 or 20 years certain and, thereafter, as long as the annuitant is alive, annuity for life with return of purchase price on death of the annuitant, annuity payable for life increasing at a simple rate of 3 per cent per annum, annuity for life with a provision of 50 per cent of the annuity payable to the spouse on death of the annuitant.

The other two options are annuity for life with a provision of 100 per cent of the annuity payable to spouse in case of the death of the policyholder and annuity for life with a provision of 100 per cent of the annuity payable with the purchase price being returned to the last survivor.

The product is available for ages 30 to 85 years.

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Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee To Resolve Wage Revision Issue Of IDBI Staff

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:42:18 +0000

New Delhi

Economic Times

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he would make efforts to resolve the issue of wage revision in IDBI as soon as the current session of Parliament is over.

Mukherjee gave the assurance in the Lok Sabha while responding to a Calling Attention motion by Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) on the situation arising out of non-implementation of wage revision in the bank.

The Minister said as soon as the Budget session is over, he will call the IDBI Chairman and all concerned and try to arrive at an agreed solution.

He said that so far no solution could be arrived at as the IDBI Employees’ Association had been insisting on parity with RBI employees for most of the time.

He said IDBI employees, unlike in other scheduled banks in public sector, have refused to negotiate with the Indian Bank Association to negotiate its wage issue.

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Falling Rupee A Ticking Bomb For Companies; Repayment Of Foreign Borrowings To Cost More

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:39:41 +0000

Anita Bhoir & Gayatri Nayak / Mumbai

Economic Times

The slide of the rupee to record lows could tear up balance sheets of many corporates that have borrowed overseas in the last few years, nullifying the cost advantage they enjoyed earlier.

The cost of repayment of overseas loans and bonds, estimated at more than $100 billion in the next few years, may climb substantially, with the rupee depreciating nearly 12% since its peak this year. A fall in the rupee’s value forces the borrower to part with more of the Indian currency to pay up the same amount of US dollars.

While the number of companies accessing overseas loans has fallen since January, even if corporates want to raise funds abroad, they may have to settle for higher yields. “If the rupee does not stabilise soon, corporates would be affected,” said Ajay Marwaha, head of trading at HDFC Bank. “We need to find sources of inflows. The RBI has done everything. Now, the government needs to make some structural changes.”

The rupee has depreciated 6.3% this quarter and is 11.9% down from its February peak as overseas fund flows tapered off while import demand remained stubborn.

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X-Ray Machines To Boost Octroi Collection

Globe Infowire — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:24:58 +0000

Nagpur

Times of India

In a bid to stem corruption in collection of octroi, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is planning to install X-ray machines at the octroi check-posts.

The scanner will not only help officials detect a loaded vehicle trying to pass off as an empty one but will also reveal its contents so that octroi can be calculated accurately. From three-wheelers to giant container trucks, the X-ray scanners will be equipped to monitor all types of vehicles.

The civic administration will table the proposal in the standing committee meeting to be held on Thursday. Around 19 proposals will be tabled of which six pertain to the octroi department.

Disclosing details, a senior octroi official said that initially, the plan was to hire the machines due to high cost.

He added that installation of the X-ray machines would lead to a substantial increase in revenue. The machines would be installed at all the city’s entry points.

To check whether a covered vehicle is loaded or not, the helpless octroi officials posted at different check posts use methods like tapping with a stick or checking the pressure of shock absorbers.

As a result, many loaded vehicles often end up paying less octroi. The decision to install X-ray scanners will be taken in the standing committee meeting.

Disclaimer: This information is appearing here only as extracts for a reference only to understand the trends in the markets/economy. To view complete stories / articles, kindly visit the URL link given herewith. Every information/article contains URL links to original sources; the users to this site are requested to view the entire content by visiting the websites/links of original sources/publishers only.

For any query/information do not hesitate to e-mail us on info@globeinfowire.com.