Investors evince interest in SKS Microfinance's proposed Rs 9 billion share sale

MUMBAI: A couple of existing investors in SKS Microfinance have evinced interest in its proposed 9 billion rupees share sale to institutional investors, a top official said in a statement on Friday. The potential investors include existing investors, socially relevant investors, microfinance investment vehicles in the developed world, private equity players and public market participants, the statement said. The company which has started the qualified institutional process, or QIP, process, hopes to have all approvals in place by December first...

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RBI may step in again to check rupee slide

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will again intervene to check any further depreciation of rupee, if required, the finance ministry has assured the pertinent parliamentary standing committee. The officials of the ministry held a six-hour-long meeting on Friday on critical economic issues with the MPs’ panel on finance. An MP later said the officials pointed out that RBI had already intervened to check the slide, lest the situation worsened. “The officials said the dollar, in the current global economic scenario, is being being seen as a more secure,...

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BoB to raise Rs 775 cr thru preferential issue

Bank of Baroda is looking to raise Rs 775 crore through a preferential issue of equity shares or convertible warrants before March-end 2012, the bank said in a notice to the BSE, on Friday. This capital infusion will increase the Government's stake in the bank to 58 per cent from 57 per cent. Last year, the Government infused about Rs 2,600 crore in BoB, which increased the former's stake in the bank to 57 per cent. The share price for the issue would be based on the last six months average price, which is as per the SEBI formula....

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RBI to issue Rs 10 notes with rupee symbol

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank today said it will shortly issue Rs 1,000 and Rs 10 notes incorporating the rupee symbol, which was approved last year. The Indian rupee got an unique symbol -- a blend of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R' -- last year joining elite currencies like the US dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in having a distinct identity. The Rs 1,000 notes will be of the Mahatma Gandhi-2005 Series bearing the signature of RBI Governor D Subbarao and with the year of printing mentioned on the back of the banknote, the apex bank said...

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Mallya meets SBI officials to discuss debt recast

Kingfisher Airlines promoter Mr Vijay Mallya met top State Bank of India officials on Friday to discuss possible restructuring of the company's debt. SBI is the lead banker to the private carrier. It heads a consortium of 13 banks. These banks have a collective exposure of about Rs 7,000 crore to the company. SBI Capital Markets Ltd, the wholly-owned investment banking subsidiary of SBI, is working on a restructuring plan for Kingfisher. It already has the mandate to restructure the mammoth Rs 40,000 crore debt of Air India. According to Mr S Vishvanathan,...

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Disclose confidential inspection reports of banks: CIC to RBI

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed RBI to make public Annual Financial Inspection ( AFI) reports of banks and also the fines imposed on them based on this exercise. Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi gave the direction while overruling the objections raised by Reserve Bank of India that these reports are confidential. RBI had contended that making the reports public might adversly affect the economic interests of the State, harm banks' competitive position and also that the information is held in fiduciary capacity. "The...

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Govt bank boards told to focus on policy

FinMin, RBI raise issues relating to micro management and better corporate governance. The Union finance ministry has asked board members of public sector banks to stop micro-managing functioning and, instead, focus on policy issues, a move seen at improving corporate governance practices in these institutions. D K Mittal, secretary, financial services, has met top bank officials on the matter and asked all public sector banks to schedule a board meeting in New Delhi by December, to communicate the ministry’s views. The directive comes after a...

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S&P to update bank credit ratings within 3 weeks

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P's) plans to update its credit ratings for the world's 30 biggest banks within three weeks and may well mete out a few downgrades in the process, possibly surprising battered global bond markets. Among the institutions that could be downgraded are Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley, said Baylor Lancaster, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. Spokesmen for the three banks declined to comment. Some European banks could also be affected. On Nov. 9, S&P downgraded its scores for the health...

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Bank loans up 18.4% on year as on November 4: RBI

MUMBAI: Indian bank loans rose 18.4 percent on year as of Nov. 4, the RBI's weekly statistical supplement (WSS) showed on Friday. Deposits were up 17.5 percent from a year earlier. Outstanding loans rose 299.54 billion rupees to 41.80 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Nov. 4. Non-food credit rose 214.13 billion rupees to 41.03 trillion rupees and food credit rose 85.42 billion rupees to 774.64 billion rupees in the period, the bank said. Bank deposits rose 351.20 billion rupees to 56.54 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Nov. 4, the WSS showed....

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Spurt in ATMs as banks look to shore up fee-based income

The relaxation of norms for using ‘other bank' ATMs by the Reserve Bank of India in 2009 seems to have encouraged banks to set up more ATMs across the country in order to garner fee-based income, acquire new customers as well as to service the existing ones. There has been a 24 per cent growth in the number of automated teller machines set up by banks to 74,505 ATMs as on March 2011, according to statistics available in the latest ‘Report on Trends and Progress of Banking in India' released by the Reserve Bank. The central bank had initially completely...

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RBI allows authorised banks to sanction 'set-off'

With a view to liberalising the export-import procedures, RBI today decided to delegate to authorised banks the power of sanctioning 'set-off', under which an item or amount is allowed to be set off against another in the settlement of accounts. Earlier, set-off in export receivables against import payables -- in respect of the same overseas buyer and supplier -- was allowed only with sanction of the Reserve Bank. "It has now been decided to delegate the power to Authorised Dealer Category I banks to allow such set off with immediate effect," the...

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United Bank of India faces crisis at top deck

KOLKATA: A severe human resource gap at the top deck followed by the government's denial in relaxing promotion rules has left state-run United Bank of India in a dire state. The bank's plan to reach the milestone of Rs 1.5 lakh crore business by March next year faces stiff challenges since it is forced to run the show with just about six general managers who are burdened with three or more departments The crisis will deepen further in January as half of them will retire by then leaving just about three senior GMs to manage critical verticals like...

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RBI not to relax CRR for now

Mumbai, Nov 17: The Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor, Dr Subir Gokarn, today said the RBI will not relax the quantum of deposits banks have to park with the central bank, dubbed the cash reserve ratio (CRR), to ease current liquidity pressures. “Not at the moment. CRR is being seen by us as a part of a monetary dashboard. To use it in a sort of tactical liquidity management sense, I think we are not at that point,” Dr Gokarn told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here. The CRR stands at 6 per cent at present and has not been changed...

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Federal Bank, LIC tie up for e-transfer of maturity proceeds

Kochi, Nov. 17: Federal Bank has signed an agreement with Life Insurance Corporation of India for paying maturity proceeds of LIC policies. Hitherto the maturity proceeds were paid by cheques from the respective branch offices of LIC across the country and sent to the beneficiaries one month prior to the due date. Now the proceeds will be credited directly to the beneficiary's account by way of NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) on the due date. This move will be cost effective for LIC and improve the payment system. Clients need not wait...

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SBT commercial biz group branches

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov. 17: State Bank of Travancore has implemented the new idea of commercial business group (CBG) branches from November 1. This is aimed at boosting the bank's wholesale banking business at selected centres, an official spokesman said here. Initially, 11 branches located at important emerging business centres of the country are being included in the group. The bank already has a commercial network linking branches in the metros and large cities to cater to the need of big corporates. CBGs are aside of this, and will take care...

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RBI cancels licence of Charminar Co-op Bank

The Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the licence of Hyderabad-based Charminar Co-operative Urban Bank as all efforts to turnaround it had failed. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the RBI said that depositors were being inconveniences by the continued uncertainty. The Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Andhra Pradesh State has also been requested to issue an order for winding up the bank and appoint a liquidator for the bank, RBI said. Consequent to the cancellation of its licence, the bank is prohibited from carrying on ‘banking business'...

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AIBEA opposed to Kingfisher bailout

The All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has opposed any bail out of Kingfisher Airlines by banks and demanded nationalisation of the airlines. The AIBEA General-Secretary, Mr C. H. Venkatachalam, has in a release stated that the association would protest any move by banks to bail out the beleaguered airlines. Banks have already extended a total credit of over Rs 7,000 crore, and purchased shares at an overvalued price just to accommodate Kingfisher Airline and protect the defaulting company by converting bad loan/debt to equity. The AIBEA...

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IDBI Bank raises $102 m thru issue of ‘Dim Sum' bonds

Indian banks are increasingly diversifying the markets from which they can raise foreign currency resources. IDBI Bank on Wednesday said it has raised Renminbi (RMB) 650 million ($102 million) by issuing three-year ‘Dim Sum' bonds to investors in the Hong Kong and Singapore markets. In the last one year or so, Union Bank of India and State Bank of India had raised funds by issuing bonds denominated in Swiss Francs. Previously, banks used to raise funds predominantly in dollars. The bank originally intended to mop up RMB (Chinese currency) 500 million...

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SBI, DDA, PNB babus fined for corruption

New Delhi: Over 200 government officials have been penalised for their alleged involvement in corruption by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) during September this year. Out of the total of 201 government employees, the highest number of 46 were from Central Board of Excise and Customs, 29 from Syndicate Bank, 20 from State Bank of India (SBI) and 13 each from Delhi Development Authority and Ministry of Railways among others, a CVC report said. Besides them, 11 officials each from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Allahabad Bank and Punjab National...

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ICICI Bank to repatriate capital from Canada arm

Move comes as stringent regulation chokes biz growth. ICICI Bank, the largest private sector bank in the country, plans to repatriate a part of the capital of its Canadian arm, as business growth has been crippled by stringent regulation. The lender’s Canadian banking subsidiary, sitting on a capital adequacy ratio of 29.3 per cent, is witnessing a decline in its return on equity. The bank has already initiated talks with the Canadian regulator on the issue, according to sources familiar with the development. The private sector lender has decided...

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SBI ties up with MoneyGram International for inbound money service

KOLKATA: State Bank of India has joined hands with money transfer services company MoneyGram International and the latter's principal agent Thomas Cook (India) Ltd to provide in-bound money services across SBI's key branches. Initially, the services will be made available to SBI's 100 branches. MoneyGram International's executive vice president for the Americas and Emerging Markets, Dan O'Malley was quoted saying in a press statement: "Adding SBI to our agent network immensely increases consumers access to the company's services across India. The...

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IDBI Bank becomes first lender to tap China funds

MUMBAI/HONG KONG: India's IDBI Bank became the first lender to raise funds in offshore yuan in Hong Kong, signalling a new set of borrowers to enter the growing bond market. From its sleepy origins as a tiny market for Chinese and Hong Kong companies in 2009, the so-called "dim sum" market or bonds sold by issuers in Hong Kong is known, has exploded to include multinational firms, large Chinese state-run enterprises and even casino companies. While the steady increase in rupee interest rates has driven local companies to raise funds overseas, the...

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Exim Bank's capital to increase five-fold to Rs 10,000 cr

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Wednesday approved draft amendments to a law governing the Exim Bank, proposing an increase in its authorised capital from Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore. Besides, the Export Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011 proposes appointment of two whole-time directors, other than the Chairman and Managing Director. The government will take the amendment bill to Parliament in the near future. The Exim Bank, which plays a vital role in financing of export and import deals, is governed under the Export-Import Bank Act,...

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Vijaya Bank expects weak credit growth in remaining fiscal

BANGALORE: Bangalore-based Vijaya Bank expects the last two quarters of the current financial year to be slow for loan growth as corporates and retail consumers postpone spending, hit by high interest rates, a top official said on Wednesday. The lender, who has no exposure in the aviation sector including the beleagured Kingfisher Airlines, is cautious about lending to power, commercial real estate and textile sectors, H.S. Upendra Kamath, chairman and managing director told Reuters in an interview. "Growth is stunted on all front. Industrial capex...

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Citigroup likely to cut 900 jobs

New York, Nov 16: US—based banking major, Citigroup, is likely to slash 900 jobs in its securities and banking division amid financial market turmoil, says a report. Quoting people familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal said job cuts are planned since turmoil in the equity and debt markets is eroding revenues. “The cuts are part of a broader move by Citigroup to curtail expenses. The bank is considering eliminating 3,000 jobs, or around 1 per cent of its work force,” the daily said. According to the report, a head count reduction...

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