With HDFC also jumping on the dual-rate bandwagon, a home buyer has some good options.
The premium that borrowers would have to pay over the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (Libor) have not, however, shot up the way they did a year ago when spreads had jumped 750 basis points for some Indian companies in the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Though Dubai has great infrastructure, the decision to purchase should be delayed by another four-five weeks.
IndiaBulls Power IPO's charged-up performance (the issue was subscribed 21.84 times) earlier this month had only one jarring note: the retail portion of the initial public offer barely scraped through, with a subscription of 1.09 times.
The move is aimed at improving margins.
For instance, new fund offers of ICICI Prudential, Tata Mutual Fund and Fortis are on, while Religare, HDFC and Principal PNB have applied for launching NFOs.
For retail investors, who had suffered big losses in the mayhem that started in January 2008, this is certainly a good news. Since mid-March, when the Sensex was languishing at 8,000 levels, there has been a sharp change in the mood. Markets have risen over 100 per cent. Even returns from mutual funds have improved substantially.
For high networth individuals, IRFs could be a good hedge against loans or existing fixed deposits.
While retaining the basic exemption limits at Rs 1.6 lakh (for individuals), Rs 1.9 lakh (for women) and Rs 2.4 lakh (for the retired), the slabs have been hiked substantially.
One indication of this was the fact that many large bond buyers stayed away from the Rs 12,000 crore auction conducted on August 7.
Income from distribution of third-party products such as insurance policies and mutual fund schemes is already under pressure because of the unfavourable economic climate.
Banks' net interest margins under pressure due to moderate income from advances.
Banks have come to realise that recession or no recession, education loans are a low-risk business.
Balachandran M, Director of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, has little time to catch his breath. He and his team have been supervising recruitment of nearly 100 public sector bank employees every day.
Reduced EMIs may be very appealing to borrowers because of a lesser burden on a monthly basis, but there is a catch to it. If the tenure remains unchanged, there is a higher interest outgo.
The clauses on corporate debt restructuring (CDR) are being reworked in view of the huge foreign exchange exposure of several companies, which have already opted for restructuring debt or are on their way to seeking approval for one.
Canara Bank has put on hold its plan to sell non-performing assets with realisation value of around Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) after lukewarm response from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs).
As part of wage settlement, new recruits will be asked to shift to the New Pension Scheme.
ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector bank, has scaled down its overseas operations, especially in the United States and Sri Lanka. It has also recalled some employees from its international offices now that the businesses of fund-raising and merger and acquisitions have shrunk.
Failed attempt to acquire stake in Kolhapur-based bank seen as trigger.
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