Moody’s Downgrades ICICI UK’s Long Term Debt
Moody’s, the global rating agency, last week downgraded ICICI Bank UK, the British subsidiary of ICICI Bank. The ratings agency downgraded supported long term bank deposits, senior unsecured debt and also revised the ratings for subordinated and junior subordinated debt issued by the bank.
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Reliance Stops Making New Consumer Loans
Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Consumer Finance; the consumer lending division of ADAG unit Reliance Capital stopped making fresh loans effective last week the Reuters news agency reported citing the Hindustan Times as its source.
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RBI Sets Up Currency Swaps For Banks Needing Dollar Funding
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week said it will provide foreign exchange liquidity to foreign branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks through currency swaps.The Indian central bank said that such a measure would ease pressure on Indian banks managing short term fund requirements for their overseas business’s that have been squeezed by the global credit crisis.
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SBI Card to Offer “Financial Difficulty Package”
State Bank of India’s credit card unit SBI Card is to roll out a “financial difficulty package”. The scheme is aimed at customers who have a decent repayment record but have recently defaulted due to financial difficulties.
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HDFC Overtakes ICICI Market Cap
HDFC Bank India’s second largest private bank by assets overtook ICICI Bank the largest private lender in India in terms of market capitalisation at the end of October, making it the largest Indian private bank based on market capitalisation.
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Tata Sons Sells 26% Telecoms Stake to DoCoMo. Chairman Concerned Over Financing
Japanese mobile phone major NTT DoCoMo acquired a 26% stake in Tata Teleservices for Rs. 13, 311 crores ($ 2.7 billion) according to a joint statement issued by both companies on Thursday. NTT will along with Tata Sons also be making a tender offer to buy 20 per cent of the outstanding shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) not owned by the holding company in accordance with SEBI guidelines. No financial details of the offer were provided in their statements.
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Supreme Court Admits Credit Card Interest Rate Appeal.
The Business Standard reported on Wednesday that the Supreme Court of India has admitted the appeal by the banking industry lobby against the order of the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission which sought to limit credit card interest rates.
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SBI Cuts Prime Lending Rate
State Bank of India (SBI) India’s largest bank has decided to reduce its prime lending rate by 75 basis points. The cut in interest rate is effective today, and was hammered out last week when the Chairmen of India’s 28 largest state owned lenders met with the Finance Minister P Chidamabaram. State owned commercial banks, account for around 96 per cent of the domestic credit market, and have agreed to cut benchmark prime lending rates in an effort to spur economic growth.
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SBI to Open 1500 Branches Next Year
The Business Standard Reported at the end of October that India’s largest bank, State Bank of India plans to open more than 1500 in the next calendar year. The bank recently reported a 40.4 percent increase in net profit, and the branch expansion plans were revealed during the press conference by bank Chairman OP Bhatt.
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What is The Repo Rate?
The Repo Rate is the official short term lending rate set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Repo is short for repurchase, and the full form is repurchase agreements. Outside of India, a repurchase agreement is usually a private interbank borrowing and lending practice. Banks will own certain kinds of what are known as liquid assets, usually government bonds, or the highest rated corporate debt which are short term in nature, ensuring that they have the deepest markets.
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