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66 Union Bank ATMs at rly stations Union Bank of India has tied up with Indian Railways to provide a host ofservices to the commuters, including Internet ticketing. The bank has signeda memorandum of understanding with Indian Railways for opening of 66 ATMs atvarious railway stations throughout the country. It would also set up aseparate kiosk to provide Internet ticketing service to passengers. Also,the ATMs would provide cash withdrawals, balance enquiries, fund transfer inown account and also prepaid mobile top ups, the bank said in a releasehere. The bank has a network of 611 ATMs and aims to install 1,000 ATMsthroughout the country by March 2007. YES Bank plans to raise $90 m YES Bank Ltd, a two-year-old Indian bank partly owned by Rabobank Group ofthe Netherlands, plans to raise $90 million selling shares and bonds byMarch to fund expansion, said the Chief Executive, Mr Rana Kapoor. TheMumbai-based bank plans to have 60 branches by June, Mr Kapoor toldpresspersons in New Delhi on Sunday. YES Bank said it planned to raise atotal of $150 million for expansion. YES Bank is also raising Rs 180 crore($40 million) selling debt maturing in nine years and six months payinginvestors a coupon of 9.1 per cent, Mr Kapoor said American Dream for SBI, ICICI Bank State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, India's two largest banks, will spreadtheir operations in the US. According to senior government officials,following the government's talks with the US authorities, India's twoleading lenders may well be granted approval for fresh branch licences inthe next six months. Part of the problem can be traced to the fact that SBIwas fined $7.5 million in 2001 by the US regulators for what was seen as thebank's failure to put in place anti-money laundering safeguards. The banksubsequently agreed to pay the fine imposed both by the US treasury and theNew York State Banking Department. SBI has operations in New York, Chicago,Los Angels and Washington, while ICICI is seeking an entry into the US aftermaking some inroads into the UK and Canadian markets. The government and RBIhave said that they have been liberal in approving branch licensingproposals from foreign banks way above the annual cap of 12. Bajaj Allianz, Centurion Bank headed for a long legal battle The dissolution of the erstwhile partnership between Bajaj Allianz LifeInsurance and Centurion Bank of Punjab is embroiled in a major feud and thetwo parties may end up in arbitration. A couple of months after the mergerof Bank of Punjab and Centurion Bank in June last year, the merged CenturionBank of Punjab (CBoP) had called for fresh bids from insurers since eachbank had different partners. Existing regulations do not allow a bank tosell policies of more than one life insurers. The bank had indicated it hadchosen Aviva because the geographies in which the firm was present matchedbank's requirement. It had also said it would continue to service customersto whom it had sold Bajaj Allianz policies, and would not try to convertthem into becoming Aviva's policy holders. Another reason for the change wasthat Bajaj Allianz was pursuing a strategy of growing its agency force andCBoP saw this as an area of potential conflict. However, the decision to gowith Aviva didn't go well with Bajaj Allianz.