News

PNB credit cards foray by March Punjab National Bank (PNB) plans to come up with its own credit card byMarch next year. It would soon invite ex-pression of interest (EOI) for ajoint venture partner in the proposed credit card venture. Currently, PNBhas a co-branding tie-up with HSBC in which latter is the card issuer andplays the dominant role. Indications are that PNB would withdraw from thistie-up as soon as the joint venture company takes off. "We have alreadyroped in Ernst & Young, who will help us identify joint venture partner",said Mr K. Raghuraman, Executive Director, PNB. Oriental Bank ties up with IL&FS Investsmart for online trading Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) would soon offer online share tradingfacility to its demat account holders. For this purpose, the bank has signeda memorandum of understanding with IL&FS Investsmart on Wednesday.Initially, the online share trading facility would be available on a pilotbasis at Mumbai. Currently, OBC has more than 1 lakh demat accounts spreadover 111 branches. The MoU, also provides for the bank's customers toundertake share trading at designated branches. "Our customers walking intodesignated branches could trade shares and IL&FS Investsmart personnel atthese branches would provide support for share trading," an OBC officialsaid. ICICI Bank pact with Canadian agency ICICI Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with Export DevelopmentCanada (EDC), a Canadian export credit agency, for financing support toIndian buyers of capital goods and professional services from Canada. "ICICIBank will leverage its international presence to provide holistic support toIndian corporates in their global aspirations," said Ms. Chanda Kochhar,Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank. The bank has a subsidiary in Canada(ICICI Bank Canada) with five branches. 4 insurers wooing Union Bank Union Bank of India is being chased by four new life insurance companies tomake the Mumbai-based bank a shareholder in their ventures. Italy's largestinsurer Generali, Japan's Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance, which has tied upwith Bank of India, Germany's second largest primary insurer The ErgoInsurance Group, and interestingly, Bharti Axa life insurance company, whichcommenced operations in August, have already made presentations to UnionBank. Experts say that roping in a bank makes more sense for Bharti Axa asit will help get a committed partner with a wide reach for selling theproducts. Union Bank officials confirmed that they have been approached bythese insurers and said the public sector bank was interested in having23-26 per cent equity stake in a life insurance company. IDBI, BoR ink deal on e-trading services IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd inked an agreement with the Bank ofRajasthan to offer advanced e-trading services throughwww.IDBIpaisabuilder.in to the customers of the bank. United Bank to move govt with capital rejig plan again United Bank of India (UBI) will once again ask the Centre to consider itscapital restructuring proposal. Earlier, the government had rejected theproposal and had asked the Kolkata-based bank to submit a fresh formula. Thebank, however, has decided against any modification and will place the sameplan yet again. The UBI board has approved the move on November 21. Themanagement felt that this was in the best interest of the bank, sourcessaid. However, UBI chairman and managing director PK Gupta refused tocomment. The government had rejected UBI's original proposal, following anote from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which is reportedly againstallowing more than 40% of bank's Tier-1 capital into preference shares. ButUBI's plan to restructure Rs 1,200 crore of equity capital intonon-convertible preference shares from the Tier-1 capital of Rs 1,600 croredoes not conform with RBI's thinking. It had proposed two other variationsof the restructuring plan. In both the cases, the conversion was in excessof 40% of the Tier 1 capital.