The Hindu Business Line : Money & Banking

Mar. 2: With rupee funds flooding the system on the back of dollar inflows, the RBI puts a ceiling of Rs 3,000 crore on the free funds parked daily by banks with it through the reverse-repo facility.

Mar. 3: ICICI Bank’s board approves a proposal to set up a new fully owned subsidiary — ICICI Holdings — and transfer to the entity, its investments in the insurance and mutual fund subsidiaries.

Mar. 5: Canara Bank, HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings and Oriental Bank of Commerce enter into a memorandum of understanding for jointly establishing a life insurance company.

Mar 12: As part of the second phase of the insurance sector reforms, the statutory share of the national reinsurer, the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), being reduced to 15 per cent from April.

Mar. 13: The board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements announces the appointment of Dr Y.V. Reddy, Reserve Bank of India Governor, as Chairman of the BIS Asian Consultative Council.

Mar. 16: The Lok Sabha passes the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 through a voice vote to provide more operational flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the conduct of monetary policy.

Mar. 20: The Reserve Bank of India approves an issue of only 12 lakh shares of City Union Bank to L&T, against the company’s proposal to pick up 26.65 lakh shares in the bank.

The overnight price of money (call rates) shoot up to 22 per cent as banks start borrowing heavily from each other to cover shortage of funds.

Mar. 26: IndusInd Bank plans to raise above Rs 130 crore through global depository receipts; launches the issue of global depository receipts on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Mar. 28: Indian Overseas Bank gets back its Bangkok branch on Wednesday into its fold, 34 years after it set up the branch and lost it to a newly set up entity called Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd.

Mar. 29: The Finance Ministry announces the issuance of the fifth tranche of oil bonds worth Rs 4,971 crore to State-owned petroleum marketing companies.

Union Cabinet allows the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) to exchange information on money-laundering activities with its overseas counterparts.

Mar . 30: The country’s external debt stock shoots up by $6.19 billion in the quarter ended December 2006 to $142.66 billion on the back of a sharp increase in commercial borrowings by corporates and also due to rise in non-resident India deposits.

The Government decides to reduce the foreign investment limit in credit information services companies from existing 100 per cent to 49 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India increases the repo rate by 25 basis points from 7.50 per cent to 7.75 per cent and the Cash Reserve Ratio by 50 basis points to 6.50 per cent in two phases effective Apr. 14 and take out Rs 15,500 crore from the system.

Mar. 31: Consumer loans including home from ICICI Bank will cost more by one percentage point, a day after the RBI hiked key short-term rates.

Events 2007 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

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