Sekhsaria hikes stake in Centurion Bank

Radha Madhav Investments, the investment arm of Narottam Sekhsaria, has increased its stake in Centurion Bank of Punjab by 0.66%. The company purchased 1 crore shares of the bank from Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership Mauritius, through a bulk deal on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The total size of the transaction was around Rs 40.46 crore. Following this transaction, the stake of Radha Madhav Investments in Centurion Bank of Punjab has risen to 3.21%.

IndusInd Bank rejigs loan portfolio

IndusInd Bank is planning to re-balance its retail portfolio by reducing its dependence on vehicle financing on account of the rising interest rate risks. The bank had earlier decided to offer personal loans only to customers with corporate salary accounts due to fears of defaults. “As a part of our overall strategy, we want to reduce the share of vehicle finance loans in our total loan book to about 40 to 45 per cent from the existing 58 per cent,’’ said managing director, Bhaskar Ghose. Over dependence on a particular business segment could expose a bank to the risk of credit concentration. "These loans are 2 to 3 years, fixed rate loans. Attempts to convert these fixed rate loans to floating rates have not been accepted by the market. Hence, there is a interest rate risk in this business segment," added Ghose. Fitch ratings has downgraded IndusInd Bank (IBL’s) rating citing weak financials compared with its peers and continued vulnerability in a rising interest rate scenario. The proportion of fixed-rate retail loan stood at 60 per cent, while wholesale term deposits constituted 75 per cent of the bank’s total deposits.

Andhra Bank hikes rates to woo short-term bulk deposits

Andhra Bank has raised the interest rate on the certain short-term buckets by up to 200 basis points for large-sized (read bulk) deposits. This is being done to replace deposits, which are due to mature. “There is going to be outflow of some deposits on maturity. We want to replace them at a lower cost,” said a bank official. The public sector bank will offer 8% on 91-119 days deposits compared with 6.50% earlier and 8.50% on 120-179 days deposits from 6.25% earlier.

Bank of Maharashtra turns 72

Bank of Maharashtra, which was registered on September 16, 1935 with an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh, celebrated its 73rd foundation day on Monday. The bank launched two new schemes to coincide with its Foundation Day. The Maha Suraksha Deposit Scheme provides life insurance to savings/current/term deposit account holders between 18 and 59 years of age, under a one-year renewable term insurance plan of LIC of India. The Maha Grih Suraksha Scheme provides life insurance cover to the housing loan borrowers of the bank through LIC under “Group Mortgage Redemption Assurance Scheme” (GMRA).