Private life insurer SBI Life Insurance posted a year-on-year rise of 14 per cent in net profit for the first quarter of FY15. The insurer posted a net profit of Rs 241 crore, against Rs 212 crore during the corresponding quarter of last year.

Total premium grew 17 per cent to Rs 1,676 crore during the period. The collection of renewal premium recorded a growth of 32 per cent at Rs 937 crore over the corresponding quarter of last year.

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, is considering share sales in its insurance and asset-management units to meet tighter capital requirements.

“We are in talks with our joint-venture partners regarding the listing of the insurance units,” chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said in an interview at her office in Mumbai on 25 July. The lender is also in discussions with Paris-based Amundi Asset Management, which holds a stake in SBI Funds Management Pvt. Ltd, for a potential equity issue, she said without elaborating as a final decision has yet to be made.

State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya on Thursday said the Reserve Bank is likely to keep interest rate intact in its upcoming monetary policy review next month. "I think status quo is more likely," she said when asked what her expectation was from RBI policy review.

On capital requirement, Bhattacharya said: "There are various scenarios, various requirements...at this point of time when the credit growth is not too much I am not seeing any immediate requirement. But going ahead, of course there will be requirement on the capital front."

The government today said some banks have initiated the process of declaring debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines as wilful defaulter. “Some banks have already started the process,” Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu said when asked as to whether the banks are going to declare Kingfisher Airlines and its promoter Vijay Mallya as wilful defaulter. Once declared wilful defaulter, criminal proceedings can be initiated against promoters and directors of the company.

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday said it will reduce interest rates on some deposits effective from Friday.

The bank has cut deposit rates of Rs.1 crore or more in two buckets by 25 basis points each. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The bank will pay 6.25% interest on deposits of Rs.1 crore or more in the seven days to 60 days bucket, down from 6.50%, while deposits in the 61 days to less than one year bucket will yield 6.75%, down from 7%.

Top bankers have welcomed the finance minister’s announcement in the Union Budget on infrastructure loans. It has met an old demand.

The minister said banks would be exempted from maintaining the cash reserve ratio (CRR), statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and priority sector lending target on funds raised to finance infra loans.

Consolidation of state-owned banks is back on the government's agenda with the finance ministry evaluating the feasibility of the proposal. A call will be taken shortly on whether Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should announce the government's intent to go ahead with the mergers in the coming Budget.

The benchmark BSE Sensex bounced back by 225 points in early trade on fresh buying in banking, capital goods, consumer durables, power and realty stocks on the back of higher Asian cues.

Asian stocks firmed up ahead of a packed week of economic data that will test investor hopes for a pick-up in the US as well as the global economy.

Mumbai: Nudged by the finance ministry, public sector banks have started valuing their non-core assets to divest stake when suitable buyers are found.

Non-core assets are investments by banks not related to lending and borrowing. These investments lie in the bank’s treasury books.

Markets extended gains in noon deals with the benchmark indices at day highs, led by gains in realty, power and consumer durable companies.

At 1400 hrs, the Sensex was up 377 points at 25,409 and the Nifty advanced nearly 100 points to trade at 7,590.

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