India

Dissolving JV with Vijaya Bank and Principal Group would enable Punjab National Bank to become more competitive.

State Bank of India's effective strategies have become the key for the bank's dominance in certain sectors.

South Asia CEO wants to tap share selling that has generated $3.11 billion this year.

Lack of buyer leaves PNB to acquire PNB Gilts as an option.

Present de facto CEO continues to adopt bottomline growth strategy introduced by his predecessor.

Bank of Baroda enters the industry via a joint venture with Andhra and a U.K. company.

According to a source, India's largest lender plans to market the syndicated loan in UK.   State Bank of India is in talks to raise a $300 million syndicated loan for software company HCL Technologies Ltd., a person close to the development said Nov. 10 in a report in Wall Street Journal.  The loan is expected to be raised at 425 basis points above the London Interbank Offered Rate, the person told Dow Jones Newswires, asking not to be named.  The loan will have a five-year tenor and the state-run bank will market it in the U.K., the person added.

Plans may be in the works for Singaporean state investor and Indian ICICI bank to sell their stakes in Firstsource Solutions.

The bank targets more than 20,000 employees for the bank’s expansion in the country.

Indian banks are likely to gain more than they lose from the latest step taken by the Reserve Bank of India to tighten provisioning norms.

Selling of shares aimed to raise funds to maintain bank's 12 percent capital adequacy ratio.

Reserve Bank of India's Q2 review prompts two India banks to defer 8 percent promo loans.

Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer, said at the sidelines of a seminar on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME):  “A lot of activities have come back in terms of re-starting projects. The fact that the projects are coming to financial closure indicates the sector will grow,” as reported in the Business Standard. 

CBI Executive Director Arun Kaul said the HR move is part of $54-million modernization plan to cater tech-savvy consumers.

Commenting on the move, bank’s Chairman and Managing Director MV Nair ,in a report in Business Standard, said: “These are difficult times. So, we want to save cost. In addition, though we are hiring, it takes time before the staff is properly trained to be posted at new branches”. The bank’s operating expenses increased to Rs 543 crore ($115.53 million) in June 2009 against Rs 416 crore ($88.51 million) in June 2008 - an increase of 35 per cent year-on-year, mainly due to implementation of project Nav Nirman, a scheme launched by Nair to put Union Bank among the top three public sector banks by 2012.The Mumbai-based bank was one of the few banks in the country which had chalked out major expansion plans. In comparison, other banks such as the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank are planning to add more than 500 branches in 2009-10. These three banks will go ahead with their expansion plans.In contrast to the Union Bank’s jeremiads of difficult times, an IDBI Bank executive said “Recruitments are less costly now. In addition, it is a good time to enter into property lease agreements as rates will go up soon”. Between April and December this year, IDBI Bank plans to add 200 new branches and will open the remaining branches in the fourth quarter. At the end of March, the erstwhile development financial institution had 595 branches.

Amid reports that talks with Standard Chartered Bank failed over valuation of the assets, ABN Amro bank’s spokesperson said: “RBS is in ongoing discussions with bidders for the remaining assets it has decided to sell in Asia and will make further announcements, as appropriate, in due course” . ABN Amro Bank, was acquired by RBS in 2007, according to a report in The Statesman.ABN Amro’s dismal $1319 profit per employee figure and NPAs amounting to 2.2 % of its assets in 2008-09 compel RBS to talk to bidders. According to RBI data on comparative performance of banks, ABN Amro did not do well on various parameters as compared to other major foreign banks operating in India. Among the important performance parameters, it witnessed a sharp decline in profit per employee to Rs 0.62 lakh ($1319) in the year of 2008-09 from the Rs 7.66 lakh ($16,298) in the previous year. The business per employee figure is an indicator of the efficiency and productivity in a company. For ABN Amro its amount is significantly below the average of Rs 24.78 lakh ($52,723) recorded by 30 foreign banks operating in the country. Besides, low employee profitability, ABN Amro Bank also witnessed sharp increase in its net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio, suggesting a sharp spurt in bad loans. The net NPAs of the bank rose to 2.2 per cent of its assets in 2008-09 from 0.85 per cent, which is only a shade better than the crisis-ridden Citibank.