The buoyant foreign capital flows in debt instruments since the beginning of 2010 could weigh on the Reserve Bank of India's decision on whether to raise policy rates.
With the Reserve Bank of India allowing retired teachers, kirana shop owners and public call office (PCO) operators to be hired as business correspondents, banks are set to hire over 200,000 people over the next few years to push financial inclusion initiatives.
The country's largest lender will set up wind power projects in Maharashtra (9 Mw), Tamil Nadu (5 Mw) and Gujarat (1.5 Mw) - with a combined capacity of 15.5 Mw - for its captive consumption at various SBI offices and branches in these three states.
The intensification of global financial crisis in the second half of 2008 had forced Indian companies to put on hold their global plans. When going was good till early 2008, Indian banks -- both public and private sector -- played their part, albeit as junior partners to large international banks, in funding deals.
Power seems to have become the new dotcom," a market observer said, referring to the surge in the number of companies of all shapes and sizes wanting to get into the power business.
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.
The move is aimed at improving margins.
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.
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.
While the level of non-performing assets for banks is on the rise, despite the Reserve Bank of India's push for debt restructuring, cases referred to the corporate debt restructuring cell increased to 34 at the end of March 2009, as against 10 at the end of 2007-08. CDR, which was set up in 2002-03, is a mechanism for faster disposal of restructuring cases involving multiple lenders, though foreign banks are yet to join the platform.
Within 15 days of opening the registration process for Nano, its Rs 1 lakh car, Tata Motors has sold nearly 5,00,000 application forms, raking in Rs 15 crore (at Rs 300 each). Distributors associated with the Nano bookings said most of the forms were likely to translate into bookings.
Loans at a discount to the benchmark prime lending rates of banks are back with a majority of the fresh loans being disbursed at sub-PLR rates.
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