The Hindu Business Line : Wednesday, February 11, 2009

MONEY & BANKING

FOREX: Slowdown may take its toll on Gulf remittances
GCC economies hit by fall in oil prices, decline in construction activity. Mumbai, Feb 10 This is a warning that the Government and banks can ill-afford to ignore. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Mr Dominique ...

CREDIT MARKET: Banks’ educational loan portfolio growing despite slowdown
Kolkata, Feb. 10 The economic recession and downturn in the job markets might not have a significant impact on the educational loan portfolio of banks, according to senior bank officials. Banks are not anticipating any slowdown or build up ...

INVESTMENTS: Insurance cos’ exposure in Satyam could be Rs 1,200 crore
Hyderabad, Feb. 10 The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) does not see any major concern in the exposure of insurance companies to the scam-hit Satyam ...

RBI & OTHER CENTRAL BANKS: RBI fiat on compliance certification
The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday said that besides company secretaries, banks lending under consortium arrangement/ multiple banking arrangements can also obtain regular certification regarding compliance of various statutory prescriptions ...

INTEREST RATES: UBI revises NRE, FCNR rates
United Bank of India has revised interest rates on NRE, FCNR (B)/RFC term deposits. NRE term deposit interest rates now are 3.73 per cent (3.75 per cent) for the period from one year to less than two year, 3.32 per cent (3.19 per cent ) for ...

GOVT BONDS: Bond prices fall
Bond prices fell by as much as Re 1 after the government announced it would borrow an additional Rs 46,000 crore. This was more than market expectations of about Rs 25,000-30,000 crore. A bond dealer with a private bank said, “Auctions ...

SHORT TERM INSTRUMENTS: Call rate ends steady
Call money rate ended steady today as supply of funds was more than adequate for banks to meet their reserve needs, dealers said. One-day call rate ended at 4.05-4.10 per cent compared with Monday’s close of 4.10-4.15 per cent. CBLOs ...

FOREX: Rupee slips by 15 paise
The rupee closed about 15 paise lower against the dollar in a quiet market. It opened at Rs 48.7 and closed at 48.72, against the previous close of 48.56/57. Intra-day movement was barely eight paise. The overall strength of the dollar in ...

FOREIGN BANKS: StanChart loans for SMEs to buy biz equipment
New Delhi, Feb. 10 Standard Chartered Bank has drawn up plans to make a determined entry into providing business equipment loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the near future, Mr Shyam Srinivasan, Country Head-Consumer ...

HUMAN RESOURCES: StanChart plans to hire 500 this year
Hyderabad, Feb. 10 Standard Chartered Bank is planning to hire about 500 this year in various roles. The bank has no plans to retrench or downsize its workforce to beat the impact of the ...

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: ADB to expand coverage of trade finance support
New Delhi, Feb. 10 Asian Development Bank is seeking to accelerate trade finance support by increasing the size of its trade finance facilitation programme (TFFP) from the existing $150 million to $1 billion this year. Plans are also afoot ...

INSURANCE: Derivatives hedging: IRDA working on guidelines
Hyderabad, Feb. 10 The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is working on guidelines to allow insurance companies to hedge their portfolios with derivatives. “Currently there is a ban on insurance companies to hedge ...

DEBT MARKET: RBI widens scope of open market ops
Mumbai: RBI, on Tuesday, widened the scope of the open market operations by including purchases of government securities through an auction-based mechanism in addition to operations ...

INSIGHT: Monetary policy is not for children
In the beginning there was money but no policy. Today, it is the other way around. The change began to take place in 1913 when JP Morgan decided, after the banking crash of 1909, that it was simply too boring to keep on ...