Dena Bank pays Rs 43 cr dividend to govt

Dena Bank has paid a dividend of Rs 42.54 crore to the government for the 2010-11 financial year.

The amount represents a 22% dividend at Rs 2.20 per equity share of Rs 10 face value, Dena Bank said in a statement.

Dena Bank Chairman and Managing Director D L Rawal handed over the cheque to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Currently, the Government of India holds a 58.01% stake in the bank.

Source: Business Standard

Read more »

LIC Housing Finance hikes lending rates by up to 50 bps

MUMBAI: Mortgage lender LIC Hosuing Finance today raised its lending rate by up to 50 basis points, in line with peers.

Under the new rate slabs, a loan under Rs 30 lakh will be charged an interest of 10.65 per cent per annum while those over Rs 30 lakh but under Rs 75 lakh will be charged 11 per cent, a statement issued here said.

A loan above Rs 75 lakh will be charged 11.50 per cent, it added.

Mortgage major HDFC had come out with a similar announcement last week, following the Reserve Bank's July 26 announcement of hiking its key rates by a higher than expected 50 basis points.

The RBI has hiked its key rates a record 11 times over since March 2010 in order to tame the uncomfortable inflation number, which stood at 9.44 per cent for June.

Source: EconomicTimes

Read more »

IDBI Bank may expand equity base in 2012-13

KOLKATA: Public sector lender IDBI Bank may go for equity base expansion in the next financial year, a top bank official said on Monday.

"Currently, our capital adequacy is 13.6 per cent and for growth of the targeted 15-16 per cent during the current fiscal, we are well capitalised, but we may require to do so in the FY 2013," IDBI Chairman and Managing Director R M Malla said here.

"We will follow whichever route is cheaper and suitable," he said.

The bank will weigh options from follow-on public offer (FPO), rights issue or qualified institutional placement.

Malla did not give any indication on the amount the bank aimed to raise through the capital expansion route.

The government now has 65 per cent stake in the bank after it infused Rs 3,000 crore.

The bank had recently raised Tier-II capital issue of Rs 900 crore and would raise another USD 1 billion in the next one year in foreign curreny through the medium-term note programme.

The bank was also looking at USD 300-350 million for the SME sector with partial guarantee from the Asian Development Bank.

Source: EconomicTimes

Read more »

Mumbai: The capital market watchdog Sebi is planning a major upgradation of its key surveillance system through which it monitors data from stock exchange and depositories for identifying the manipulation activities.

The move would help the regulator in its efforts towards a better, continuous monitoring of manipulation attempts in the stock market and analysis of daily transaction data.

Sebi, which has been using the Integrated Market Surveillance System (IMSS) since December 2006 for market surveillance purposes and identifying the suspicious transactions, has now decided to further upgrade the IT infrastructure of the system.

The regulator is looking to add additional security and accessibility features to the system for a faster and more secure monitoring of the market.

A senior official said that the IMSS system is very useful in situations like the one being witnessed currently, when volatility is on a very high level and the attention is mostly focussed on the major market-moving developments.

The market manipulators tend to be more active in these situations, thinking that the oversight machinery would be mostly focussed on monitoring issues like risk-management systems and proper settlement of payment obligations.

However, the IMSS keeps working on an auto-pilot like basis and an upgraded system would further help in the surveillance activities of the regulator, official added.

Sebi is looking to upgrade the IMSS systems at its main data centre, as also at the three stock exchanges (BSE, NSE and MCX-SX) and the two deposities NSDL and CDSL.

The system collects transaction and master data from the stock exchanges and two depositories (NSDL, CDSL) on a daily basis to generate alerts for predefined market manipulation scenarios.

It also provides data analysis and benchmarking tools, which are used in various policy decisions of the Sebi.

Source: Financial Express

Read more »

HSBC alerts US clients to tax evasion probe

Washington: The HSBC Bank, which is at the core of a US crackdown on offshore tax evasion, has alerted its clients having an account in India, including Indian Americans, to consult a tax advisor after it received summons from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeking its account-holders' names.

"In the interest of our customers, we would like to highlight that if you have any concerns about your US tax reporting relating to your HSBC India account(s), you should consider consulting with a US tax advisor to determine the appropriate course of action," said Sanjay Nair, head customer propositions, retail banking and wealth management, HSBC in a letter to its customers.

HSBC in its letter, informed its American clients having bank account in HSBC India that the IRS has served a summons on the bank seeking information with regard to financial accounts of US persons maintained with its branches in India.

"While we haven't seen the letter HSBC sent to its clients, we've reviewed excerpts and it confirms what we've known all along: the IRS and other law enforcement officials will pursue action against non-compliant tax filers aggressively," said Wayne Holton, a CPA with the accounting firm Citrin Cooperman.

"Indian-Americans with overseas accounts through HSBC should make the assumption that the bank will be cooperating with the IRS, which issued a summons asking for names of account holders," Holton said, adding that individuals with foreign accounts at HSBC India need to be working with tax professionals to become compliant before the August 31 deadline for voluntary disclosure.

Holton recommended that if US residents, green card holders or resident aliens have foreign bank accounts that have a highest value in excess of USD 10,000 in any year from 2003-2010, they should consider entering into the IRS Offshore

Voluntary Disclosure Initiative prior to the August 31 deadline.

HSBC in its letter told its customers that if they have concerns about their US tax reporting, they need to be aware of an IRS voluntary disclosure programme, which encourages US taxpayers to bring themselves voluntarily into compliance with the US tax laws.

"According to the IRS, voluntary disclosure enables taxpayers to become compliant and avoid substantial civil penalties, and generally eliminates the risk of criminal prosecution," Nair said.

As part of this voluntary disclosure practice, on February 8, 2011, the IRS announced an "Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative" or "OVDI" which includes a special penalty framework applicable to voluntary disclosures regarding unreported offshore accounts and entities, it said.

According to the IRS, the OVDI offers greater certainty regarding the applicable penalty structure and is designed to encourage US taxpayers with offshore assets to take advantage of the IRS's voluntary disclosure practice, the HSBC letter said.

Source: Financial Express

Read more »