Home loan borrowers perpetually worry about the consequences of defaulting. And whether they wish it or not, there could be situations where they are forced to do so. For instance, after the Mumbai bomb blasts on July 11 2006, a large number of affected families found themselves in deep financial trouble leading to difficulties in servicing their home loans
Trading in currency futures will soon become a reality for the retail investor. With the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India issuing trading norms, exchanges are readying themselves to launch this product in the next few weeks.
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, is on an outsourcing overdrive. After outsourcing the back-office work in foreign offices, the bank has now decided to rope in external agencies to set up automated teller machines to save on capital expenditure and reduce the rollout time. It plans to initially outsource 500 ATMs to vendors, including original equipment manufacturers.
A clampdown on fresh personal loans, credit cards and auto loans is taking a toll on direct selling agents hired by banks to push these products. According to estimates, banks have reduced the number of DSAs by 15-25 per cent, while marketing expenses are 35-40 per cent lower.
The yen may have depreciated to 110 against the dollar from a high of 96 earlier this year, but bankers are advising extreme caution in using the Japanese currency for raising resources and hedging risks.
Government banks have demanded that the amount eligible under the farm waiver scheme should continue to be considered lending to the farm sector till the government clears the dues to help banks meet the mandatory priority sector lending target.
With banks taking the cue from RBI to hike rates, home buyers will have to take serious measures to keep their finances under control.
Continuing the flow of home loans and accessing low-cost deposits are two key elements of the government's instructions to public sector banks.
A host of them have a tracking error of more than 1 per cent
Families are cutting expenses or reducing their investments, all pointing towards the fact that inflation has hit them.
Global crude oil prices have dropped 14 per cent in less than a fortnight, but the three public sector oil marketing companies could still end up borrowing more in the domestic market and put further pressure on liquidity. With the three OMCs still saddled with under-recoveries, estimated at Rs 820 crore (Rs 8.2 billion) a day, they have no option but to use bank credit lines in the coming days as they have run out of their stock of oil bonds.
With the stock markets being on a downturn for most part of the year, many asset management companies (AMCs) are sitting on huge piles of cash or cash equivalents, with some equity-oriented funds holding as much as 40 per cent of their assets in cash, a Crisil report pointed out.
The next time you buy a householder's insurance policy, you could be paying premiums that are 35 to 50 per cent lower. This is the result of the de-tariffing or lifting of price controls on insurance policies from January this year.
Banks are reluctant about disbursing loans for aviation studies on fears that a slowdown will hamper the job prospects in the aviation sector. The move, say analysts, may affect the fortunes of aviation training institutes.
When the markets nosedived to 12,961.68 points on July 1, the country's richest man (read Mukesh Ambani) and his family lost more than Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion), all in a single day.
For the already invested, the road ahead looks rather bumpy. However, when markets offer little to cheer about, for ones who have stayed away for so long, it does offer a whole lot opportunities.
With rising interest rates and inflation taking a toll on home loan customers, banks are beginning to encourage them to partly prepay their loans. Many of them are doing so without charging them prepayment penalty.
With high property costs and home loan rates deterring buyers, builders are looking to get into affordable housing in the next few months.
Both private and public sector companies are introducing products for diabetes and hypertension- related diseases for the elderly.
Sensing a correction in the real estate sector, commercial banks have become selective in lending to new residential and commercial real estate projects.
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