Understanding Housing/ Home Loans
1. For what purposes can I seek a first time home loan? You can generally seek a first time home loan for buying a house or a flat, renovation, extension and repairs to your existing house. Most banks have a separate policy for those who are going for a second house. Please remember to seek specific clarifications on the above-mentioned issues from your commercial bank. 2. How will your bank decide your home loan eligibility? Your bank will assess your…
Money Market in India
What is Money Market? The money market provides investment avenues of short term tenor. Money market transactions are generally used for funding the transactions in other markets including Government securities market and meeting short term liquidity mismatches. By definition, money market is for a maximum tenor of up to one year. Within the one year, depending upon the tenors, money market is classified into: i. Overnight market - The tenor of transactions is one working day. ii. Notice money market…
Major Investment Banks in India
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities eg: IPO/ FPO work is handled by investment banks. An investment bank also assist companies in mergers and acquisitions, and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives, fixed income instruments, foreign exchange, commodities, and equity securities. The following is the list of major indian investment banks based out…
Why invest in GSecs in India?
2. Why should one invest in Government securities? Holding of cash in excess of the day-to-day needs of a bank does not give any return to it. Investment in gold has attendant problems in regard to appraising its purity, valuation, safe custody, etc. Investing in Government securities has the following advantages: Besides providing a return in the form of coupons (interest), Government securities offer the maximum safety as they carry the Sovereign’s commitment for payment of interest and repayment of…
Government Securities (GSecs), India
1. What is a Government Security? A Government security is a tradable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State Governments. It acknowledges the Government’s debt obligation. Such securities are short term (usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one year) or long term (usually called Government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or more). In India, the Central Government issues both, treasury bills and bonds or dated securities while the State…
What is RTGS System?
Q1. What is RTGS System? Ans. The acronym 'RTGS' stands for Real Time Gross Settlement, which can be defined as the continuous (real-time) settlement of funds transfers individually on an order by order basis (without netting).'Real Time' means the processing of instructions at the time they are received rather than at some later time.'Gross Settlement' means the settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually (on an instruction by instruction basis). Considering that the funds settlement takes place in the books…
NEFT Fund Transfer System
What is NEFT? Ans: National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is a nation-wide system that facilitates individuals, firms and corporates to electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to any individual, firm or corporate having an account with any other bank branch in the country. Are all bank branches in the country part of the NEFT funds transfer network? Ans: For being part of the NEFT funds transfer network, a bank branch has to be NEFT-enabled. As at end-January 2011, 74,680…
Speed Clearing of Cheques
Banks as part of their normal banking operations undertake collection of cheques deposited by their customers, some of which could also be drawn on non-local bank branches. Such cheques are called outstation cheques. In order to facilitate faster collection of outstation cheques, the Reserve Bank of India started a special clearing styled “Speed Clearing” by leveraging the core-banking-solutions implemented in banks. In the interest of better public awareness, the following FAQs on Speed Clearing have been prepared. Question 1 What…
Standard Chartered Bank, India
Standard Chartered Bank is a London based bank, currently operational within over 70 nations with more than 1,700 branches and 73,000 strong workforce as of April 2009. Although the bank is located in Britain, still a huge chunk of its revenues originate from the continents of Asia, Africa and Middle East. Standard Chartered Bank was formed as the merger of two banks viz. The Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China and The Standard Bank of British South Africa. The…
HSBC Bank, India
HSBC Bank is a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, a London based banking giant which, according to the Forbes magazine, is the largest banking group in the world, and the 6th largest company in the world as of April 2009. HSBC Holdings had been established in Hong Kong in the year 1990 as the parent company to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). Further, the bank moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to London. Key Atributes With a loan-deposit…