The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has simplified investment norms for foreign investors in the bond market. Earlier, there was a restriction that foreign investors can invest a maximum of $10 billion in treasury bills. Now, the central bank prescribed a overall cap of $25 billion on investment in government bonds, including both long- and short
Tag: finance
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NHB to raise funds through ECB
In order to lend to low-cost housing projects, National Housing Bank (NHB) plans to raise $200 million through external commercial borrowing (ECB) in 2013-14. The NHB plans to seek approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for raising the amount through ECB. In 2012-13, the housing finance regulator could raise funds under ECB as the approval from RBI came in the latter
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Bank credit to infra projects may suffer under Basel III
A recent report by ratings agency Icra said bank credit to infrastructure sector may be affected by the norms of the Basel- III regulation. Credit to infrastructure is long-term in nature, while the deposits of banks is short-term to medium-term. This raises asset-liability mismatch. According to the Basel-III norms, banks must maintain a strict net stable funding ratio (NSFR), which is designed to ensure that long-term assets are funded with
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Essar Steel to reduce interest cost by raising dollar debt
Dilip Oomen, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Essar Steel informed media persons that the company plans to replace its rupee debt with dollar debt in order to reduce interest cost. By September 2013, the firm plans to refinance its entire domestic debt of around Rs 20,000 crore into dollar terms
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Bandhan may launch banking venture
Agency report indicates that Bandhan Microfinance plans to foray into banking sector in order to cater to the un-banked and rural areas. The microfinance institution (MFI) feels that it meets all the criteria specified in the final guidelines released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI
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RBI chief discusses license norms with house panel
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao recently discussed the final guidelines on new bank licenses with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. The guidelines were issued by the central bank recently to allow corporate houses and public sector entities with “sound credentials and a minimum track record of
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Shriram Transport to raise debt
Umesh Revankar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Shriram Transport Finance informed that the firm Rs 1,000 crore through non-convertible debentures before June 2013. The company may raise a major portion of this amount from small individual investors and the remaining will be raised from qualified institutional investors and institutional
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Foreign banks seek more time to adhere to norms
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received a request from large foreign banks operating in the country to to extend the timeline for adhering to the new priority sector norms. It may be recalled that the new priority sector norms makes it mandatory for foreign banks with over 20 branches to allocate at least 40 percent of its credit to priori
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TN govt seeks Rs 1 bn for solid waste project
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa informed that her government was expecting Rs 100 crore from the central government for implementing solid waste management system across certain areas in the state. Meanwhile, the state government raised the construction cost of green houses given to its beneficiaries from
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Axis Bank expects 30% growth in housing credit
Axis Bank has a total home loan portfolio of Rs 30,000 crore and the bank plans to increase this at the rate of 30 per cent every year over the next two years. Thus, the bank aims to have a total home loan portfolio of Rs 50,000 crore by the end of 2014-15. The bank's home loan portfolio occupies a major part of its retail lending assets, which stood at Rs