Prudential board approves Say on Pay for holders

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Prudential Financial Inc. said Tuesday its board has approved giving shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation, a so-called Say on Pay, that many companies have adopted in the face of criticism of soaring executive pay.

Shareholders of Newark, N.J.-based Prudential will get to vote every other year on the compensation policies set by the board committee that decides how to pay executives.

Prudential follows other companies that have approved similar Say on Pay voting power for shareholders. The Obama administration has proposed requiring it at all public companies.

Prudential sells life insurance and manages assets for investors, as well as other services.

Its shares rose 30 cents to $50.11 in aftermarket trading after closing Tuesday at $49.81, up 2 percent from the previous day's close.

Birla Sun Life Declares dividends in 3 equity

Birla sun life AMC on monday announced dividends in three equity funds and one balanced funds.

Govt to raise stakes in three banks

The government is set to increase its stake in Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Dena Bank.

ICICI PRU EPFs TOP FUND MANAGER

ICICI prudential has retained the top position among the employees provident fund organisation fund managers giving 8.77 percent return during the one year period ending September 2009.

Buy ICICI BANK WITH STOPLOSS OF RS.935 Karvy

Buy Rolta India With Stoploss Of Rs 150: KarvyKarvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained 'Buy' rating onICICI Bank stock to achieve an intraday target that lies between Rs 960 -965.

According to Karvy, interested traders can buy the stock between Rs 940-945 with a strict stop loss of Rs 935.

On Tuesday (Oct 06), the shares of the bank closed at Rs 938.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 944.60 and a low of Rs 252.75 on BSE. Current EPS and P/E of the stock stood at 35.11 & 26.44 respectively.

HDFC's Q2 sanctions up 30%

We see a good growth in loan disbursals in the next few quarters. HDFC expects an d 20-25 percent growth in loan disbursals in 2010.
According to - DEEPAK PAREKH (chairman of HDFC)

Unity infraprojects wins order worth Rs.54.50 Crore

Unity Infraprojects, , one of India's largest civil contractors, has secured an order worth Rs 54.50 crore from Amanora Park Town for construction of six towers, RCC works and upto gysum finish - (R21) Sector, Amanora Park Town, Hadapsar, Pune.

The project is scheduled to be completed within next 29 months.

SBI insurance insurance launches Subh Nivesh

SBI Life Insurance, India's third major private has announced the introduction of SBI Life Shubh Nivesh, a traditional savings plan with an option of whole life cover for its customers.

The newly introduced savings plan (Shubh Nivesh) has been designed to meet the savings, protection and income needs of customers having a risk-averse profile.

PFRDA board clears extra a/c for NPS subscribers

NEW DELHI: The Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) board on Wednesday decided to provide the New Pension System (NPS)

subscribers with an extra account from which funds can be withdrawn anytime they want.

An NPS subscriber can now have two accounts—a standard one and a flexible one. Although the norms for investing the contributions to these two accounts would be the same, subscribers will have greater flexibility in accessing funds from the second one, when needed. One can access funds from the standard account called tier one only for specific needs such as medical emergency or marriage. The flexible account will be introduced on December 1, 2009.

The pension regulator also decided in principle to introduce a low-cost pension scheme for the poor, for which PFRDA is negotiating with the record keeper to reduce the annual charges from Rs 350 to Rs 60, PFRDA chairman D Swarup told ET.

The National Securities Depositories (NSDL) has agreed to slash the charges to Rs 75 a year, but PFRDA is negotiating to further lower it to Rs 60. The scheme would enable a large section of the nearly 28 crore low-income workers such as rickshaw pullers, fishermen, weavers and street hawkers to have a safety net to lean on when they enter the twilight years of their working life.

“The idea of having more than one record keeping agency has also received the blessings of the PFRDA board,” said Mr Swarup. Competition among record keeping agencies would bring down cost and enhance efficiency, pension experts said.

The three-member board of the regulator also decided to accept proposals from corporate entities to manage their pension funds subject to the condition that these entities will have only those investment choices that are available to any other pension subscriber. They will not be able to customise the investment options. NPS’ fund management charges are quite low. The regulator has already received proposals in this regard from SBI and Himachal Road Transport Corporation.

WB okays $4.3 bn loan for infrastructure and banks

NEW DELHI: The World Bank on Wednesday sanctioned four loans aggregating $4.3 billion to support India’s economic recovery by strengthening

its state-run banks and funding infrastructure projects. The bank said the loans would support the country’s economic stimulus measures by channeling resources into infrastructure, power and irrigation sectors.

“This is a crucial time to support Indian economic recovery,” World Bank country director for India Roberto Zagha told reporters in a video conference. “Despite the uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, current trends suggest a growth rate of between 5.5% and 6.5% for 2009-10 is realistic,” he said.

Of the total sanctioned amount, $2 billion will go to the Centre for enhancing the capital base of public sector banks, $1.195 billion to the India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), $1 billion to PowerGrid Corporation and $150 million to Andhra Pradesh for a rural water supply and sanitation project, the World Bank said here.

The government will use the $2 billion for the banking sector to ensure that shortage of capital does not constrain the banks’ ability to lend. The World Bank denied media reports that the loan has pre-conditions such as asking the government to reduce concessional lending to certain priority sectors.

“No conditions are imposed on public sector banks. This is not a loan for the recapitalisation of banks. It provides budgetary support to the government of India. As with all development policy lending, support to the borrower is predicated upon the maintenance of an appropriate macroeconomic framework, and an effective medium-term strategy for economic growth and poverty reduction,” the World Bank said.

PNB to buy Stake in kazakh bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB), India's second largest public sector lender has decided to purchase a stake in Kazakhstan's Metrokombank.

The sources said that the pact may be concluded after due diligence is finalized.

The officials of Metrokombank stated in a communiqué that the deal will take place once several conditions are met, including a due diligence check and regulatory approvals.

The sources informed Metrokombank ranks 30th among Kazakhstan's 37 banks by assets, with 4.7 billion tenge (US$31.1mn) in assets as of Sept. 1.

BUY ICICI FOR SHORT TERM

echnical analyst Abhishek Jain of Stocksidea. com has suggested investors to buy ICICI Bank for short term.

Mr. Jain expects the stock to hit a target of Rs 925.

According to Mr. Jain, the stock may face some resistance around Rs 894 levels, but after that it can even have more upward movement.

The scrip has very strong support at Rs 802.

History of Insurance Sector

The insurance sector in India has come a full circle from being an open competitive market to nationalization and back to a liberalized market again.

Tracing the developments in the Indian insurance sector reveals the 360-degree turn witnessed over a period of almost 190 years.

The business of life insurance in India in its existing form started in India in the year 1818 with the establishment of the Oriental Life Insurance Company in Calcutta.

Some of the important milestones in the life insurance business in India are:

• 1912 - The Indian Life Assurance Companies Act enacted as the first statute to regulate the life insurance business.
• 1928 - The Indian Insurance Companies Act enacted to enable the government to collect statistical information about both life and non-life insurance businesses.
• 1938 - Earlier legislation consolidated and amended to by the Insurance Act with the objective of protecting the interests of the insuring public.
• 1956 - 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies taken over by the central government and nationalized. LIC formed by an Act of Parliament, viz. LIC Act, 1956, with a capital contribution of Rs. 5 crore from the Government of India.
  
  The General insurance business in India, on the other hand, can trace its roots to the Triton Insurance Company Ltd., the first general insurance company established in the year 1850 in Calcutta by the British.

Some of the important milestones in the general insurance business in India are:

• 1907 - The Indian Mercantile Insurance Ltd. set up, the first company to transact all classes of general insurance business.
• 1957 - General Insurance Council, a wing of the Insurance Association of India, frames a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices.
• 1968 - The Insurance Act amended to regulate investments and set minimum solvency margins and the Tariff Advisory Committee set up.
• 1972 - The General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act, 1972 nationalized the general insurance business in India with effect from 1st January 1973.
  
  107 insurers amalgamated and grouped into four companies viz. the National Insurance Company Ltd., the New India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and the United India Insurance Company Ltd. GIC incorporated as a company

Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest cut overdraft charges

Royal Bank of Scotland and its offshoot NatWest todayhave announced cuts in overdraft fees.

The state-controlled bank, which is 70% owned by the taxpayer, said from 1 October it was cutting the "unpaid item fee" – imposed when a cheque, direct debit or standing order bounces – from £38 to £5. And the maximum amount that customers have to pay in unpaid item fees will fall from £114 a day to £50 a month.

The fee for paying for an item when overdrawn will be cut by half to £15 a day, while the "guaranteed card payment fee" (where a customer uses a debit card with cheque guarantee facility) will be reduced to £15 from £35. The latter fee will be capped at £90 a month – down from £105 a day.

Meanwhile, the monthly maintenance charge for going overdrawn without consent is down from £28 to £20.

The lower charges come as the test case on unauthorised overdraft costs continues to wind its way through the courts. The case has been brought by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) against seven banks and one building society questioning the fairness of the fees they impose when someone exceeds their agreed borrowing limit.

Brian Hartzer, the new head of the retail division, said: "As we look ahead there are many issues to consider, but we thought it was time to move this particular customer concern forward by cutting our charges."

He added: "At RBS, our support for our customers must be at the core of all that we do, as we work to return the bank to stand-alone strength. We are changing what we do as a bank and the way we do it. Today's announcement is one more example of the determination we have to support our customers." highest unauthorised overdraft charges on the high street, with fees of around £120 for a three-day overdraft.

The group's chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, said: "This is a step in the right direction and a victory for consumer pressure.

"However, if RBS and NatWest truly want to get back in their customers' good books, they should admit defeat in the bank charges test case and repay the millions of pounds Which? believes they've been unfairly taking from their current account holders for years."

Aviva launches 'Street to School' program

Aviva, on Thursday launched of its ‘Street to School’ programme in India working in partnership with CRY. The Corporate Responsibility (CR)program’s objective is to provide education to 50,000 underprivileged children over the next 3 years. At the start of this program, Aviva India employees have volunteered a day’s salary, amounting to Rs 0.24 crore.

Aviva plc also plans to roll out a series of Street to School partnerships with other charities around the world over the coming months. From 2010, 50% of the group’s charitable donations will focus on ‘Street to School’ programs.

Aviva also unveiled a research report on the savings habits of young parents – ‘Aviva Young Scholar Insights’ – on the occasion. Of the 2,250 people surveyed across 10 urban cities, 67 per cent respondents mentioned that planning for a child’s future takes priority over retirement and protection.

TR Ramachandran, CEO & MD, of Aviva Life Insurance said, “As the survey suggests, parents believe ‘Education is Insurance’ to secure a brighter future for their kids.

On the other hand, 50% of children aged between 6-18 years do not get to go to school at all. Through our global ‘Street to School’ initiative, we seek to empower underprivileged children with Education, thereby insuring their future.”

LIC to invest Rs 1 lakh cr in equities this year

State-run life insurance major LIC today said it would invest Rs 1 lakh crore in the equity market in the current financial year, up from Rs 35,000 crore during 2008-09.

“We have already invested Rs 40,000 crore in the stock market in the first four months of the current financial year and by March 2010, the company would invest an additional Rs 1 lakh crore,” LIC Zonal Manager (North) Vinay Kumar Sinha said.LIC had invested about Rs 35,000 crore in the equity market during 2008-09, he said. Such a large investment by the country’s biggest domestic financial institution will boost sentiments at bourses, which witnessed volatility, especially after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in America last October. Having crossed the 21,000 points-mark in January 2008, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index (Sensex) nosedived to around 8,000 points last year itself.

Now, govt banks out to manage wealth

In a bid to ensure that high networth individuals (HNIs) stayed with them, public sector banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Bank of India (BoI), have been climbing on the wealth management bandwagon in recent months.

The country’s largest bank, SBI, has decided to set a cut-off of Rs 60 lakh for any individual to be called an HNI. This would qualify nearly 200,000 clients for specialised services such as relationship managers. Armed with specially-designed software, which is being tested, the manager will ensure that the customer does not have to visit a branch. And, in case someone does have to visit one, the plan is to have special sections with five-star ambience. While all this is still being finalised, the bank has kicked off operations in a small way with focus on the affluent section. So, customers with over Rs 5 lakh in the bank are eligible to avail themselves of this service. The bank is currently offering this service at 502 branches through 1,100 customer relationship executives. While SBI’s liability group, personal banking division and the new business group are working on the project called ‘Attracting HNIs’, Bank of India is contemplating on how to enter the space. “It will happen in due course of time. We have not yet started anything formally, but it is one of the options being considered at the moment. It could be a subsidiary, a joint venture or a separate department altogether. Discussions are at different stages and we should be able to come up with something in a year’s time,” said BoI Chief Financial Officer VKR Aggarwal. However, Union Bank and BoB have opted for tie-ups. The former recently launched its wealth management services along with Wealth Advisors, a Chennai-based company, to offer wealth management for its customers in south India. For customers in Mumbai, it has tied up with Edelweiss Securities. Under terms of this tie-up, Edelweiss will offer a whole range of wealth management products and alternative investment options, such as structured products, real estate funds and art, to Union Bank’s HNI clients. It will also provide them equity and debt investment options. The minimum ticket size for such investments is Rs 10 lakh.

BoB’s wealth management foray is so far limited to only United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, unlike the foreign banks and some domestic players, the Indian public sector banks would not offer services such as succession planning. “In reality, art investment and a lot of other services that they talk about are all on paper. Succession planning is essentially advisory and the family has to take the final decision. So, as a bank, we are not in a position to advise our clients on such sensitive issues,” said a public sector bank executive, who spent several months trying to understand the services on offer.The key reason for public sector players entering the wealth space was to ensure that well-off customers did not move away to private banks that offered services such as relationship manager. In addition, they realised that branding the well-off as HNIs with a low cut-off made some clients feel special. The biggest advantage was the focused approach to cross-sell. For instance, SBI’s mutual fund or insurance arm can now sell the group’s products, which was not the case earlier. What has further prompted the move of the public sector banks to enter wealth management is the recent Sebi ban on entry load for distributors of mutual fund schemes. The ban hit these banks hard as they were quite active in distribution of mutual funds’ schemes. Although, government banks are still distributing mutual fund schemes, the ban has eroded their fee-based income. Now these banks are getting only 0.75-100 basis point upfront commission from fund houses compared to the 2.25 per cent load earlier. Hence, some of these banks are planning to offer advisory and charge clients for the same. Sebi mandates distributors and advisors to charge clients for advisory services. Experts said that public sector lenders’ entry into wealth management might offer some competition to private and foreign banks that have been dominating the space. Government banks might have an edge over the private and foreign players because of their large deposit base, they added. Barclays Wealth Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satyanarayan Bansal said, “Private banking in India is still in early stages of growth. There is enough potential for players to come and expand in this market. It will also depend on the quality of services and products offered by various players.”

RBI Forecasts 6% rise in GDP

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of India, announced that it forecasts 6% growth in Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the present fiscal, despite the poor monsoon.

RBI declared in its annual report on Thursday that one needs to acknowledge the progress on effective variegation of Indian agriculture towards horticulture, livestock and fisheries and their growing share in total output of the agricultural sector. It also stated that cereals, pulses and oilseeds grown during kharif report for only 20% of total agriculture output.

PNB LAUNCHES FESTIVAL SEASON BONANZA 2009 FOR HOUSING LOANS AND CAR LOANS

To meet the aspirations of public during festival season, Punjab
National Bank has launched “PNB Festival Season Bonanza Offer 2009”.
This is in continuation of several measures initiated by the Bank in the
recent past to make its Retail Lending Schemes “Customer Friendly".
Under the Offer, Housing Loans upto Rs.30 lacs will be available at
discounted Rate of Interest of 8.50% under fixed interest rate option (fixed
for three years) across all repayment tenors, besides full waiver of
Processing (upfront) Fee and Documentation charges. Margin also
stands reduced to 15% for housing loans upto Rs.20 lacs.
A rebate of 0.50% p.a. in rate of interest is also offered to prospective Car
Loan borrowers under Fixed Option.

The Offer will be valid from 14.08.2009 to 31.10.2009.

It is expected that the public will be availing the facility enthusiastically.

export growth at 15%

In the trade policy for 2009-14 the government has set the target of export growth at 15%For first two year and at 25% per annual in the last three years

ICICI BANK LAUNCHES iMOBILE

iMobile is a breakthrough innovation in banking where practically all internet banking transactions can now be simply done on mobiles phones. iMobile is a small software called Rich Client Based Application, that is downloaded on your mobile phone. When installed on your phone, it embeds the ICICI Mobile Banking option on your phone menu. The application covers Savings Bank, Demat, Credit Card and Loan accounts. We continually add services on the application which are made available through an upgrade link available within it.
You can pay your utility bills and insurance premium through this facility. Place service requests and access the help menu for further information on your mobile. ICICI Bank offers this facility free* of charge to customers.
iMobile ensures security through secure authentication. To access your account using your mobile phone without using 'key words', download iMobile. Choose the most convenient route to download iMobile on your handset

IDBI Fortis Life to pay claim in case of swine flu death

Mumbai: IDBI Fortis Life Insurance will clear the claims of next of kin if any policyholder died of swine flu, a top company official said, despite the disease not being listed as one of those for which such a payment can be made."Insurance will be given in the case of death due to the H1N1 virus even though the disease has not been mentioned at the time of buying the policy," IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer G V Nageswara Rao said in Mumbai.The company has listed 17 diseases for which policyholders can claim insurance and swine flu is not on the list, he said. Despite this, the company will pay if any policyholder died of swine flu.However, the disease will continue to be out of the firm's policies, Rao said. IDBI Fortis Life Insurance is a joint venture between IDBI Bank, Federal Bank and Europe-based bancassurer Fortis. IDBI Bank holds a 48 per cent stake while Federal Bank and Fortis hold a 26 per cent each in this venture. The company, which earned Rs 319 crore as first-year premium last fiscal, is bullishabout its growth during this fiscal. "We are in the growth phase," Rao said

No more than Rs 10k from other ATMs

NEW DELHI: RBI has put a cap on third-party ATM withdrawal (When a cardholder is using other bank’s ATM) at Rs 10,000 per transaction and also limited the number of such transactions to five in a month. For more than five third-party transactions in a month, one has to pay Rs 20 per transaction. However, there will be no such limit when a cardholder is using his/her own ATMs.

A senior official, who heads the ATM operation of a private sector bank, said the new scheme will be effective from October 1, 2009. RBI has already made all ATM transactions, including third-party ones, free of any extra charge. This has led to increase in the number of transactions taking place at third-party ATMs. The banker said that many customers started misusing the provision by withdrawing small amounts — even Rs 100 and that too almost almost daily.

Your bank pays around Rs 20 per transaction to the other bank when you use its ATM to withdraw money. Even if you withdraw Rs 100 from any other ATM, your bank pays Rs 20 to that bank. This increases cost of operations for banks substantially.

So, banks requested RBI to put a cap on the number of third-party withdrawals. Banks had also asked for a minimum withdrawal amount of Rs 1,000 for third-party transaction. But, RBI did not accept this demand as it would have affected small depositors.

HDFC Bank slashes India's FY10 growth outlook to 5.8 pc

NEW DELHI: HDFC Bank has slashed India's growth outlook for the current fiscal to 5.8 per cent from its earlier projection of 6.5 per cent because

of the deficient monsoon.

"Kharif sowing picking up but likely to be lower than last year. (We) see agricultural output falling by 3 per cent in 2009-10 against previous forecast of 3 per cent growth," the bank said in a research report.

The outlook of a negative growth in agriculture comes on the back of the Indian Meteorological Department's revised rainfall forecast and uncertain impact of mitigants such as ground water harvesting and modification of cropping patterns.

"Reports of expected reduction in kharif output of up to 10 per cent have prompted us to revise our agricultural growth forecast lower," the bank said.

However, it said price impact of a deficient monsoon can be reigned in by drawing down food stock buffer, extension of tax-free sugar imports, limits on grain exports and crackdown on hoarding.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today reiterated there would be no exports of foodgrains from the country at a joint meeting of state agriculture ministers on drought here.

Though the bank's agricultural outlook has come down, its impact on India's overall growth forecast has been partially mitigated by the rise in forecasts for growth in industry and services for the current fiscal.

INTEREST RATES TO GO UP

The country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today said lending rates will start going up any time now, quite contrary to the SBI Chairman’s projection that borrowers can breathe easy till Diwali.
“I really believe that interest rates are not going to go down from here. Gradually they would go up. When? Would really depend on how fast the credit growth takes place”, ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said.
Her statement comes a day after SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said that rates would not rise till Diwali and may even soften by 25-50 basis points before the busy season in October.
In April, ICICI Bank was the first to reduce lending and deposit rates by 50 basis points after announcement of the annual credit policy by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Replying to questions on impact of the large government borrowing on the financial system, Kochhar said, “The amount is large. I don’t think that amount is small. It does have its own impact on interest rates and financial system. I am sure there is a thought behind it.”
In order to step up expenditure to stimulate the economy reeling under the impact of the global financial meltdown, the government decided to raise Rs 4.51 lakh crore through market borrowings this fiscal, up from Rs 3.1 lakh crore in 2008-09.
Expressing concern over the high government borrowing, RBI Governor D Subbarao had recently said that it was impairing the ability of the central bank to further lower the interest rates through monetary measures.
Pointing out that there is more clarity on the market borrowing programme of the government, Kochhar said, “What will happen to the interest rates. Is more dependent on how the credit growth picks up. As far as the government borrowing is concerned, now that there is so much clarity. The market has already built in whatever the impact will be.”
The centre has decided to borrow 70 per cent of its requirement during the first half, she said, adding that the important message that the government gave out was that it would bridge the revenue-expenditure shortfall, if any, by raising taxes and not through more borrowings.
Moreover, she added, “The private sector plans depend not so much on government borrowing. Their plans depend more on their own performance. And their belief... To raise debt and equity.”
The data for the last three months indicate improvement in capacity utilisation by India Inc, Kochhar, ranked the world’s 20th Most Powerful Woman by Forbes, said and added that since the commodity price correction, these people are coming back to restart their projects.

Aviva Life to hire 1,500 sales executive in 7 months

Aviva Life Insurance is planning to hire 1,500 sales managers and 13,000 sales agents in the next seven months in order to expand and improve their business prospects, according to Managing Director and CEO T R Ramachandran.
Currently, the company has an employee base of 7,000 with around 37,000 advisers. The company saw its business decline by 19 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year compared with the corresponding period in 2008.
Ramachandran announced that the company would launch five new products in the current financial year, out of which three would be unit-linked insurance based products and the other two conventional insurance schemes. The company was also planning to sign contracts with two banks to form bank insurance models.
It has come out with a survey which has revealed that a majority of people give priority to their children’s education as against retirement, marriage or after death liabilities. Hence, the company’s major focus areas are microfinance products and products centered around child education.
The company launched one of its corporate social responsibility “street to school” programmes in partnership with two non- government organisations — CRY and Save the Children India.
In the first year, they will reach out to 20,000 children through nine projects in five states.
The company’s counterpart in the United Kingdom has committed $500,000 for the project over a period of three years, while employees of the organisation in India have volunteered to forego a day’s salary.

NEW PURPOSAL FOR IDBI BANK

IDBI Bank has revived the proposal to sell IDBI Home Finance, its wholly-owned subsidiary, to Dewan Housing Finance, nearly seven months after it had to put the plans on hold due to a last-minute government intervention.

Sources close to the development said the bank had approached the finance ministry with a fresh request to sell the company though the government was yet to decide on the issue.

The latest move comes after IDBI Bank pumped in Rs 20 crore into the home finance company to shore up its capital base to meet the National Housing Bank-prescribed norms.

While IDBI Bank did not respond to a questionnaire sent on Friday afternoon, Dewan Housing Finance Chairman and Managing Director Kapil Wadhawan said he did not want to comment on the issue. Sources said the bank proposed to sell its shares in the home finance arm at Rs 21.46 each and the total consideration would be a little over Rs 350 crore.

In August 2008, IDBI Bank had valued IDBI Home Finance at Rs 351 crore, which was lowered to Rs 333 crore in early January on the grounds of poor market conditions.

The exercise conducted in January, included IDBI Home Finance’s value per share of Rs 22.95 and a premium was also built in. Dewan Housing had emerged as the highest bidder, but its bid was Rs 21.46 and the total consideration offered was Rs 311.12 crore.

Tata Capital was the second highest bidder (Rs 225 crore), followed by Religare (Rs 221 crore).

Since January, the market had improved and IDBI Bank had also pumped in additional equity, a source pointed out. For instance, based on its market capitalisation Dewan Housing’s valuation has shot up by over 40 per cent from Rs 707 crore on January 6, when IDBI Home Finance valuation was undertaken, to Rs 990 crore now.

IDBI Bank, which was to take up the proposal in late January, had to defer a decision on a last-minute missive from the finance ministry. In March, the government cited the low bids to advise the bank against selling IDBI Home Finance.

“The highest bid received (Rs 311.12 crore) is even lower than the revised valuation (Rs 333 crore). It is felt against this background that the timing of the bids is inappropriate. Markets are weak,” the government said.

While suggesting IDBI Home Finance’s merger with the bank, the finance ministry pointed out that IDBI acquired the mortgage company to de-risk its portfolio and move from being a development financial institution to a universal bank.

The ministry had also said that the sale would result in a breach of IDBI Bank’s single-party exposure norm of Rs 2,000 crore.

“There is also no guarantee that Dewan Housing Finance would (a) keep the (192) employees (b) not do what it wants with the acquired company, including sale at a profit,” it added.

INDIA'S BANK OF BARODA TO HIRE 3,500 PEOPLE BY MARCH 2010

Bank of Baroda is going to recruit about 3,500 people by March 2010 including 2,000 clerks and 1,000 probationary officers," Bank of Baroda chairman and managing director M D Mallya told PTI.

Besides, the bank is going to do campus recruitment, he said, adding, "we are planning to go to reputable institutes like IIMs and IITs".

As many as 200 management students and engineers will be hired during the year, he said.

In addition to this, the bank will recruit 250 agriculture officers.

Royal Bank Of Scotland's Bed Debts Overshadow Return To Profit

Shares plunge as RBS chief executive warns of two hard years ahead for the bank and the wider economy

ING RESULT DOWN 96.3 PERCENT

Dutch banking and insurance group ING on Wednesday reported a 71 million euro net profit for the second quarter against a net profit of 1.95 billion euros during the same period of last year.

TATA AIG JOINS HANDS WITH POLICYBAZAR>COM FOR SALE OF ITS INSURANCE PRODUCTS

Policybazaar. com, India's leading online non-life and life insurance aggregator, has tied-up with TATA AIG Insurance Ltd, the country's largest insurer to sell its products on the internet. It should be noted that it for the first time ever, when TATA AIG Insurance has tied with an insurance portal.

The move will enable consumers to get detailed information on company's insurance products.

ICICI PRUDENTIAL LAUNCHES NEW INSURANCE POLICY

ICICI's insurance arm, ICICI Prudential Life, has introduced a post-retirement pension scheme, Life Stage Assure Pension (LSAP), in a bid to provide post-retirement security to customers, through their small savings. The new policy carries partial withdrawal facility after five years, ensured addition of about 200 per cent premium after one year, and a number of other attractive features.

SBI SLASHES HOME LONE RATE

The country's leading public sector bank, the State Bank of India, has announced a further cut in the interest rates for home loans, in line with its special three months long SBI My Home Campaign set to start from Saturday. The move will further intensify the home loan war between rivals public and private sector banks, which will leave no stone unturned to woo customers by providing cheap and affordable interest rates.

ON LINE HEALTH INSURANCE

Health Insurance OnlineHealth Shield OnlineHealth Shield Online is a comprehensive Health Insurance package specially designed to offer complete protection to the insured and his family. You can cover your spouse, children (above 90 days) and dependent parents (up to 50 years) from all Health worries. However, renewal is accepted only up to 70 years.
With Health Shield, you will also have access to value added services like cashless treatment (subject to conditions and authorisations) at a list of hospitals provided by us, a 24 hour helpline and ambulance referral facility at no additional cost. It has been designed to ensure that you and your family get the best medical treatment at any time when you need it.
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BANK STRIKE

ATMs empty as bank stir sparks higher withdrawals





NEW DELHI: A number of ATMs ran out of cash in the city. While ATMs of PSU banks that are on a two-day strike went dry early in the day, some ATMs
of private banks too ran out of money towards Thursday evening as PSU bank customers made a beeline for them.
the strike was called by united forum of bank union which is combination of nine banking unions. In this strike nearly 4000 branches were closed nation wide and the loss of Rs 250 billion is anticipated.
‘‘ It’s a new situation for us,’’ said a private banker. ‘‘ Now that all ATMs are linked and a customer from any bank can withdraw money from the ATM of any other bank, there was huge pressure on the ATMs of banks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.’’

The banker said the problem would be temporary. ‘‘ All ATMs are monitored electronically . As soon as they run out of money, the bank sends out personnel to replenish them,’’ he said. Private banks noticed higher withdrawals on Thursday and were replenishing the ATMs more frequently.

On Day 1 of the two-day strike, around 10 lakh employees of government owned banks, which control almost 70% of banking operations in India, struck work. These banks had filled their ATMs with cash on Wednesday night. But by afternoon , they went dry
.

Even as major private sector banks provided some relief to customers, the two-day nationwide strike by public sector bank employees over wage revision has left many people in a spot. With public sector banks accounting for 70% of banking business in the country, banking operations in the capital were also severely impacted.

STRIKES IN PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS

Banking services are expected to be affected as employees of public sector banks across the India will go on a two-day nationwide strike on 6th & 7th August, 2009 to press for wage hikes and other issues.

There was a conference between employee unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in the presence of the Chief Labour Commissioner. However, it failed to give up any result, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener C H Venkatachalam said.

“We are going ahead with the strike,” he said, adding that the IBA has further reduced the rate of wage hike from the proposed 17.5 per cent to 13 per cent.

At the same time, the IBA further did not concede demands on pension and appointing dependents of deceased employees on compassionate grounds, he said.

Unions have called for strike on August 6 and 7 pressing for an increase in wages and another option to join the Pension Scheme.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a question said, wage revision of officers and staff of the public sector banks are due since November, 2007.

“The wage revision of officers and employees is negotiated by Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) that represents the management of such banks, which have mandated it to negotiate on their behalf, with the Unions or associations representing the employees and officers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the LIC employees throughout the country, including the State observed a two-hour strike preceding lunch recess today to register their protest against introduction of LIC Amendment Bill in the Parliament.

“The real motive behind the Bill, which increases the LIC’s equity from Rs 5 crore to Rs 100 crore is to pave the way for disinvestment of LIC,” mentioned a release from the Guwahati Division Insurance Employees’ Association.

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