The Hindu Business Line : Wednesday, October 25, 2006

INSIGHT
Inflation targeting goes popular
Hard to believe but a fact. No less than 21 central banks around the world follow an inflation target-based interest rate policy. The well-known examples are the ECB (which also has money supply targets), Bank of England and Reserve Bank of ... More

CREDIT POLICY
Inflation and interest rate tidings still good
While the price rise of some basic necessities may be aggravated by the runaway expansion in money supply, the rise in interest rates has had some impact on demand, though this has to be checked against data from the RBI's Mid-Term Review to be out o n October 31. Should the central bank tackle inflation by tinkering with rates? A. SESHAN thinks it should stay its hand for now. More

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
ICICI Bank Q2 net rises 30 pc
Higher interest income and fee income boosted the bottomline More

Federal Bank net rises 28 pc
The net profit of Federal Bank has grown by 28 per cent to Rs 69.46 crore (Rs 54.16 crore) during the second quarter of the current year. For the half year, the bank posted a net of Rs 109.64 crore. The gross profit grew to Rs 139.01 crore (Rs ... More

SBBJ net up 117 pc
State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has reported a 117 per cent growth in its net profit for the first half of 2006-07. The net profit during the April-September 2006 period stood at Rs 125.39 crore as against Rs 57.76 crore in the first half ... More

PRIVATE BANKS
Higher volumes on retail assets boost ICICI Bank's growth
While ICICI Bank is almost half the size of SBI in terms of total assets, its retail assets are about 45 per cent higher than that of the latter. More

PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS
Vijaya Bank eyes Rs 3,400-cr biz in Hyderabad
The Hyderabad region of Vijaya Bank has set a target of achieving Rs 3,400 crore of business during the current fiscal year as against Rs 2,200 crore in the last fiscal, representing a growth of 54.54 per cent. Addressing newspersons here on ... More

CORPORATE BONDS
PFs selective about bank bond investments
Stiff rating norms come in the way More

FIXED DEPOSITS
`More opt for short-term bank deposits'
An increasing number of people are opting to invest their money in commercial bank schemes of shorter maturity periods — of less than two years. According to the Assocham (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) Eco ... More

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
`Centurion-LKB merger not under Cos Act'
A counter-affidavit filed in the Kerala High Court, by Mr B. Swaminathan, Managing Director, Lord Krishna Bank, pointed out that banking companies were controlled, supervised and inspected by RBI experts, which could not be done by inspectors to ... More

TRADE & LABOUR UNIONS
LKB staff call off strike
The battle over the merger of Lord Krishna Bank with Centurion Bank of Punjab has moved over from the streets to the court of law with the employees calling off their strike. At a bi-partite meeting on Monday between the management and ... More

PEOPLE
Addl duties for Chanda Kochhar
Ms Lalita Gupte, Joint Managing Director of ICICI Bank, will retire from the board on October 31 and Ms Chanda Kochhar, Deputy Managing Director, will take charge of international banking and continue to oversee corporate ... More