‘Accredited loan providers’ mooted

‘Accredited loan providers’ mooted
Our Bureau
Mumbai, July 24 A technical group set up by the Reserve Bank of India has suggested the creation of a new class of moneylenders called “Accredited Loan Providers”.
Unlike the traditional moneylenders, these new breed of lenders will provide loans to villagers with money borrowed from commercial banks.

The proposed lenders are expected to bring discipline in the informal credit delivery system, which is now being dominated by village moneylenders, who charge exorbitant interest rates.
An accredited loan provider (ALP) will be linked to a particular bank, which will monitor his lending activities. But the lender will do the business independent of the bank (at his own risk) competing with the existing moneylenders.

For the bank, the advantage would be that the money provided to ALPs will be treated as priority sector lending. “This would encourage the banks to take up the role of institutional creditors and disburse loans through the linkages with accredited loan providers as an additional business,” the report said

Existing moneylenders, agricultural traders, commission agents, vehicles dealers, retail petrol dealers or any other persons considered suitable by the bank can become an ALP. The group has also suggested a set of conditions to be entered into between the bank and its accredited loan provider.Interest Rates

The technical panel has also recommended compulsory registration of moneylenders in all States and capping of the interest rates charged by them.
It has suggested that state governments should notify from time to time the maximum interest moneylenders could charge.

This could be done in consultation with the state-level Bankers’ Committee. Such rates can be linked to a market-determined benchmark rate and provide mark up for cost of delivery, other expenses and a reasonable margin, the committee said in its report.
The Group, constituted by the RBI in May 2006 under the chairmanship of Mr S.C.Gupta, the then legal advisor-in-charge of RBI, proposed a model legislation on moneylenders to be adopted by the States.

Indian share sales on track to double this year

Indian share sales on track to double this year

NEW DELHI: Indian share sales may double this year, buoyed by record demand from investors attracted by the fastest pace of economic growth in almost two decades, JPMorgan Chase said.

Companies in India have raised $12.1 billion in share sales so far in 2007, up from $6.34 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

ICICI Bank's record $5 billion sale, in India and overseas, drew demand for more than 11 times the amount offered to local investors.

"We wouldn't be surprised at all if this year the market were to double," said Vedika Bhandarkar, managing director and head of investment banking for India at JPMorgan Chase in Mumbai.

"There's a huge equity pipeline coming in the next 6, 12, 24 months from India."

State Bank of India, the nation's biggest by assets, will be allowed to raise as much as 80 billion rupees of capital once the government permits the state-owned holding to be lowered to 55 percent from 59.73 percent, the company's chairman, Om Prakash Bhatt, said last week.
Laws that will allow the bank to raise more funds are expected in two months, he said.

HDFC Bank, the nation's third-biggest by value, plans to sell $1 billion of shares and use the proceeds to meet accelerating demand for loans from consumers and companies. A date for the sale has not been set.

Indian banks will need to raise 500 billion rupees this year to bolster capital as lending rises, India's banking secretary, Vinod Rai, said April 19 in New Delhi.

Still, government curbs on ownership and foreign investment limits for state-run lenders could make it harder for them to sell stock, said Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Online and Ad spend nears $5 billion mark in January-March 2007

Online and Ad spend nears $5 billion mark in January-March 2007

Mumbai: Online advertising revenues continued to increase in January-March 2007, nearing the $5 billion mark, according to a report prepared by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Internet advertising revenues reached a record $4.9 billion in the first three months of 2007, up 26 per cent from $3.8 billion in the same quarter of the previous year, and 2 per cent higher than $4.8 billion in the previous quarter.

The annual report for 2006 also shows combined revenues approaching $17 billion.
Interactive advertising in Europe has reached $10.8 billion (€8 billion) in 2006, with the UK taking up the lion's share at 39 per cent of online advertising spending, followed by a distant 22 per cent in Germany, and 15 per cent for France, a separate survey by the IAB's European division and PwC found.

The majority of advertising spending — about 45 per cent — related to online search, according to the study, while 31 per cent went to display advertising, 22 per cent to classifieds and 1.6 per cent on e-mail marketing.

The IAB conducts the study while PricewaterhouseCoopers collects survey information on online advertising revenues from websites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and others selling online advertising.

World's largest exchange is born as Chicago Board of Trade - Chicago Mercantile Exchange merge

World's largest exchange is born as Chicago Board of Trade - Chicago Mercantile Exchange merge

Mumbai: Shareholders for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) have approved plans to join forces with longtime rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME, also called Merc), in an $11.9 billion deal. (See: CME bids $11.5 billion for CBOT v/s ICE's offer of $11.4 billion)
The merger creates the world's largest exchange but ends 159 years of independence enjoyed by CBOT, the world's oldest commodities exchange.

The deal should close within days, the two exchanges said adding, the new firm operating the exchanges will be called CME Group, a Chicago Board of Trade company.

With the agreement to buy the Chicago Board of Trade sealed, CME, the biggest US futures exchange, will move trading to the CBOT's art deco building.

CME's purchase of the CBOT also marks a transition from pit-based to electronic trading. CME will be shifting pits to the CBOT building to preserves traditional face-to-face trading, which many traders still prefer. But, over a period, trading floors are expected to become obsolete as electronic trading takes over.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust, established in 1969 to provide financial assistance to CME financial settlement firms that become insolvent, owns the current trading floor. The trustees may decide in the next couple of months on the future of the trading-floor space, said Kassie Davis, the trust's executive director.

CME's acquisition of CBOT ended four months of negotiating that also involved attempts by the Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc., to cut a deal of its own with a $11.4-billion offer.
A deal with CME became a certainty only after Merc raised its offer a third time to win over CBOT's largest and most influential shareholder, Australia-based Caledonia Investments. Once that happened, the deal was all but done. ICE's most recent proposal had been valued at a still-hefty $11.7 billion.

CBOT was founded in 1848 by 83 merchants at 101 S. Water Street. The board moved in 1865 to the Chamber of Commerce Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington streets, only to have it destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871.

Its next home was at LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard, which in 1885 was the tallest structure in Chicago and the city's first commercial building with electric lights. The CBOT tore down the building and replaced it in 1930 with its current 45- story art deco home.

CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board at Lake and LaSalle streets in the Marine Building, a site that's home today to a 27-floor office tower. The exchange's longest stay was at 110 N. Franklin Street — now a vacant lot — from 1928 until 1972, when it moved to 444 W. Jackson Street. It's been at 20 S. Wacker Drive since 1983.

7 landscaping tips

These ideas offer some of the best returns for your renovation dollar. Plus, the payoff increases over time.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- If prospective buyers looked at your house today, what would they see outside? A giant evergreen that looks as if it might swallow the station wagon, perhaps, scraggly old foundation plants or maybe a kitchen-table view of the neighbors' kids' trampoline?

If so, you have a truly inexpensive opportunity to boost your home's curb appeal.

By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help.

Besides the personal enjoyment you'll get from a prettier yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation.

A recent Michigan State University study found that depending on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds 5 percent to 11 percent to its price.

If you have no immediate plans to move, all the better: Landscaping is the one home improvement that actually appreciates over time.

So how do you decide which projects to tackle? That depends on how long you think you'll be around to enjoy the results.

If you're selling in a year or less

Edge the beds Cutting fresh edges where grass meets mulch makes the lawn look well kept. A move as simple as curving the edge of your flower beds could increase the value of your home by 1 percent, says horticulture professor Bridget Behe, the lead researcher on the MSU study.

Also, if your foundation plants are overgrown, widening the beds by two feet will make the shrubs seem smaller.

Nourish the grass For truly lush turf, ideally you should start regular fertilizer treatments a year before listing the house. But you can green up the lawn with just a single application.

Spend $45 on a broadcast spreader, which quickly distributes fertilizer over a lawn, enabling you to nourish a quarter-acre lot in about 10 minutes.

For a yard that size, expect each monthly application to cost about $20 (for straight fertilizer) to $30 (with weed killer).

Scatter color throughout For about $1 a plant, you can blanket your yard with petunias, impatiens and other small annuals that will flower throughout the current growing season.

Also invest a few hundred dollars in some larger perennials and in shrubs that stand at least four feet high.

"A few good-size plants have more sex appeal than 20 little ones," says Chicago landscape architect Douglas Hoerr.