Mr.Valsan in his presidential address stated that being a customer-oriented Bank, SIB is striving hard to render personalised customer service using its technological capabilities.“The new facility launched on the first day of the month of Ramayana for facilitating online booking, free of bank charges, of offerings by the devotees is actually SIB’s offering to Lord Guruvayurappan” , Mr.Valsan also said .” With the launch of the new facility, customers of SIB are facilitated to effect offerings with greater transparency and security at the click of a button” the Executive Director also stated .He also stated that SIB hoped to offer the services of booking of ‘vazhipadu” at any the 511 branches to the general public in the near future.

Mr.Thottathil Ravindran, Chairman, Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee in his inaugural address complimented South Indian Bank for being the first bank to come up with such a convenience banking product for the benefit of the devotees of Lord Sree Guruvayurappan .

Mr.V.V.Ratheesan, Administrator, Guruvayur Devaswom, Mr.C.T.Devis, Asst.General Manager & Regional Head and also Mr.M.K.Parameswaran, Senior Manager of the Bank also spoke on the occasion. Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee members –Mr.Gokulam Gopalan,Prof.T.R.Hari and Mr.M.Vasudevan.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

THE SOUTH INDIAN BANK LTD :-

CORPORATE PROFILE

South Indian Bank (SIB) is one of the leading scheduled commercial banks in India with a strong focus on technology and service delivery.

SIB has many firsts to its credit .

SIB is –

*The first in the private sector in India to open an NRI branch .

*The first private sector bank to start an Industrial Finance branch in India.

*The first Indian traditional Bank to achieve all branch/office inter-connectivity and register 100% CBS .

*The first private sector bank from India to provide managerial support to an Exchange House in the

Middle East .

South Indian Bank has registered an all time high net profit for the financial year 2007-08. The bank has declared a net profit of Rs. 151.62 crore for the current financial year as against Rs. 86.49 crore for the previous year registering a growth of 75.30%. With the advantage of 100% branches covered by Core Banking Solution, South Indian Bank was the first in its peer group to announce audited results for the financial year 2007-08.

The total business of the Bank stood at Rs 25,910 crore as on 31-03-08 registering a growth of 26.10%. While the deposits went up by Rs. 2,917 crore from Rs.12,239 crore to Rs. 15,156 crore registering a growth of 23.83 %, the advances increased by Rs. 2,446 crore from Rs. 8,308 crore to Rs. 10,754 crore registering a growth of 29.45 % .

With this the Bank has exceeded all the three ambitious targets the Bank had set in 2005 for achieving the milestones of Rs15000 crores , Rs 20000 crores and Rs.25000 crores in total business respectively for 2005-06 , 2006-07 and 2007-08 .

Due to effective recovery measures resorted to during the year, the Bank could bring down its Gross NPA percentage from 3.94 to 1.78 and Net NPA from 0.98 % to 0.33 % .

The Bank crossed the milestone of Rs.1000 crore of networth during 2007-08.

The major FIIs in the FII holding of 47% in the Bank’s equity include ,India Capital Fund, International Finance Corporation,Acacia Partners LP,India Fund Inc.,Goldman Sachs Investments(Mauritius),Morgan Stanley(Mauritius),India Institutional Fund,Deutsche Securities Mauritius,FID Funds(Mauritius) etc.

The Capital adequacy ratio of the bank is as high as 13.80% against the regulatory requirement of 9%.

The Bank had declared 2007-08 as the year of youth and has launched a novel deposit scheme “YOUTH PLUS” with technology features focusing the younger generation.

South Indian Bank, has now presence in 23 States/Union Territories having established a network of 502 Core Banking Branches ,26 CBS Extension Counters and 227 online ATM Centres

The Bank is planning to open 28 more branches during the current financial year to take the total number of branches to 530. Our focus during the next financial year will be on increasing the CASA funds as well as non interest income by sale of mutual funds and insurance products.

Another Milestone –Inauguration of the 14th Region

The 14th Regional Office of the bank to give administrative support to the branches in the tech-savvy state of Andhra Pradesh was inaugurated by Mr. K.Rosaiah,Hon:Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh .Dr.N.Krishna Mohan ,Director,IDRBT will be the Guest of Honour. Mr.M.Valsan ,Executive Director of the Bank presided over the function.

Technology As The Key Driver of Business

The Bank’s ambitious technology up-gradation project named ‘SIBERTECH’ by introducing a Centralized Core Banking Solution ‘Finacle’ in technology partnership with the Infosys Technologies Limited is complete and all the branches/offices all over the country have been linked to the Centralized Data Centre at Kochi and hence 100 % of the Bank’s business is now absolutely on-line .The Disaster Recovery Facility is functioning at Bangalore.

With the up-gradation of technology , SIB now offers a host of hi-tech products which enables the customers bank from anywhere , saving them time , money and hassles . This means that they can avail of a range of solutions and make convenience banking a way of life . For this the Bank has launched various value-added products and services like Global Debit-cum-ATM card, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking etc.

SIB’s Global ATM – cum – Debit Card can be used at over 8 lac ATMs and 120 lac merchant establishments all over the world.The Global ATM – cum – Debit Card of SIB, which recently became the first Kerala based bank to have directly joined the National Financial Switch (NFS) of the Institute for the Development of Research in Banking Technology (the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India) can also be used at over 20,000 ATMs all over India . 227 On-line ATM Centres have also been set up all over the country.

The bank has tied up with ICICI Prudential life insurance for selling of insurance products at over 284 SIB branches in Kerala.This is a major step towards growing the fee-based income of the bank. This partnership, would help, for the first time in the country ,the policyholders of ICICI Prudential to pay their first as well as renewal premiums in cash at over 284 branches in Kerala.The Bank has also a tie up with Bajaj Alliance for distribution of general insurance products.

South Indian Bank is the first private sector bank from India to provide management support to an exchange house in the Middle East..This enables SIB to provide top quality service, to NRIs looking at remittances to India , in a technology –driven environment .

The Bank very recently could bag a special award for excellence in banking technology from IDRBT which is the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India .This award was presented to the Bank as a national level recognition to the excellent contribution made in the area of information systems, security policies and practices .The bank has bagged this award by tightly competing with all categories of banks in India such as Foreign Banks, Private sector banks, public sector banks and co-operative banks .

The Bank, as part of the global brand building exercise, has signed mega star Padmashree Bharat Mammootty as its Global Brand Ambassador. His tech savvy image goes hand-in-hand with our bank which has always been in the forefront of embracing technology. South Indian Bank has also unveiled a new corporate logo that demonstrates the major transformation the bank has undergone since its inception .

The Bank has launched a NetBanking initiative to provide real-time fund transaction for the online banking customers through ‘southindian bank.com’ , the online banking channel of the bank. This will make possible for the retail and also corporate customers of the Bank for online debits/credits from/to authorized accounts. This enriched Net-banking product has the potential for utility payments and payment gateway (shopping mall) facilities. This customer- value proposition contains functionalities to support consumer (Retail) e-banking and also corporate e-banking .

Recently the Bank has been rated as a “Top NPA Manager” in “ASSOCHAM- ECO PULSE” study for having reduced Net NPA substantially within one year.

Conscious of the corporate social responsibility , South Indian Bank has launched the ‘Money Lender-Free Village” pilot project at Meloor in Trichur District of Kerala .The main objective of the Project is replace the non-institutional, usurious, exploitative rural credit mechanism of private lending with lending through Self-Help Groups (SHGs)and direct lending by SIB. Under this initiative, SHGs act as extension of SIB to reach out to villages in even the remotest locations. This project though started very recently could garner acclaim from many quarters.

The Bank is committed to become a technology- driven , customer-oriented bank (the new corporate slogan being -“Experience Next Generation Banking”)where passion for excellence is a way of life , innovation is a tradition , commitment to values unshaken and customer loyalty is abiding .

The long-term corporate objective is to emerge as the most preferred Bank in India, with core competence in fostering relationship banking, garnering core deposit with accent on cost, creating high yielding quality assets through focused marketing, qualitative appraisal and effective monitoring. We are dedicated to provide quality service to our customers and maintain high standards in corporate responsibility.

Despite acquiring the latest technological capabilities available to the banking industry in the country, the Bank will continue the emphasis on personalized customer service, which has been the Bank’s core strength for all these 79 years. Incidentally , the Bank had also been selected , in the Outlook Money – C- Fore Survey, as the best private sector Bank in India in the ‘Service Quality ‘ segment .

Commenting on the AutoInvest benefits, Mr. Prasanth Prabhakaran Senior VP, Kotak Securities said, “Through continuous research, we found that there was a category of investors who wanted to invest in the stock market for long term but are unable to do so, either due to the lack of time or a lack of knowledge in stock picking. We therefore decided to launch AutoInvest to address this gap. Further taking AutoInvest to the next level, we have also launched AutoInvest Gold which allows investors to build their investments in a combination of Gold ETFs, Equity stocks and Mutual Funds. It is our constant endeavour to involving investors in every step of their wealth creation to both motivate them as well as educate them on the best choices available. We aim to cater to investors who believe in a systematic long-term wealth creation. The investor should however be aware that investments in equities are subject to market risks and a SIP product does not necessarily assure returns.”

AutoInvest – Gold, is a systematic investment solution that enables an investor to invest in gold ETFs, stocks and mutual funds on a regular basis, making it a well diversified investment. With AutoInvest - Gold, on sale of Gold ETFs through Kotak Securities, the client will be given a 2 per cent discount coupon which the client can redeem at any Kotak Mahindra Bank branch if he wishes to purchase gold within the validity period of the said discount. For availing the discount coupon on sale of Gold ETFs through Kotak Securities the client needs to be a Kotak Mahindra Bank account holder.

Under AutoInvest - Gold the investor can invest in 3-4 stocks, mutual funds and Gold ETFs every month, which is/are recommended by a dedicated research team at Kotak Securities. Based on the risk appetite, investors can choose from the below profile:

Profile – Features

Ø Aggressive Gold – Only Gold Exchange traded funds (ETF)

Ø Aggressive Gold – Moderate Profile - Equity (30%), Diversified MF (50%) & Gold ETF (20%)

Ø Aggressive Equity – Only Stocks i.e.; investing in large, small and mid cap companies/stocks.

Ø Moderate Equity – Only large cap stocks.

Ø Moderate Profile – Equity (80%) & Diversified MF (20%)

Ø Conservative Equity – Equity (100%)

Ø Conservative Equity & Mutual Funds – Equity (20%) & Mutual Fund (80%)

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Kotak Securities Limited is a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and is the stock broking arm of the Kotak Mahindra Group. With a market share close to 7.3%* of daily volumes, it is one of the India’s leading stock broking house. Kotak Securities processes over 300,000 secondary market trades everyday and manages a huge equity asset pool with over Rs. 3300 crore under management. Awarded the Number One “Prime Ranking” in 2004, it is one of the leading distributors of Initial Public Offers (IPO). Kotak Securities has been a distributor for some of the most successful issues in the country. It has also been the winner of many prestigious awards such as – ‘Best Performing Equity Broker in India’ by CNBC – TV 18 – Optimix Financial Advisory Awards 2008. It offers a wide range of financial products for its investors, including Stocks and Shares, IPOs, Mutual Funds and Derivatives. Kotak Securities, today, has 877 outlets in 321 cities, servicing over 4.30,000 customers.

Regarding this recent development, Rupinder Khurana, Co-Founder and Director, Rupiz Infotech, stated,“PaisaWaisa was created with the sole purpose of providing the Indian audiences with the facility of doing everything related to finance on the internet. Further, we wanted to introduce the concept of comparison services, something unheard of in the country, but a fairly popular one in the UK.” The Rupiz Infotech Group, launched in 2003, was initially actively involved in the UK online market in the domains of finance and e-commerce. They have now set their sight on the Indian markets with a wide array of projects, one of which is PaisaWaisa.

According to a report, more than 3 crore taxpayers had filed their returns in 2007-08, with 21.93 lakh filings online, up from 3.7 lakh in FY 2006-07. These figures clearly suggest that filing taxes online is not only convenient, but also gainnig popularity among the masses. Parul Dubey, Co-Founder and Business Development Head, PaisaWaisa.com, stated,“With the internet spreading its reach across the country, online tax filing is surely the next big thing to happen to the Indian online finance scenario. Not only does it ensure filing of documents in the proper order, but also saves one from the cumbersome processes of filing tax returns manually.”

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release ( or for a sample, copy or demo ), contact Webmaster or visit http://www.paisawaisa.com

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The Capital adequacy ratio of the bank is as high as 13.93% against the regulatory requirement of 9%. During the quarter, the Book value per share has increased from Rs. 107.01 to Rs.132.70.

The Board of Directors of the bank had recommended a dividend of 30% for the financial year 2007-08, which is the highest in the history of the bank. The Board of Directors have also recommended issue of bonus shares to the shareholders, who hold shares in the bank as on the record date to be fixed later, in the ratio of 1:4 subject to approval of the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 18th August, 2008.

Besides, Villupuram, Thrikkakara and two branches opened recently in Hyderabad city – Kukkatpally, A.S.R. Nagar – the Bank will also will be opening shortly a branch in Chennai – Thambaram, two branches in Maharashtra – Kolhapur and Aurangabad – and three branches in Bangalore City. Sixteen more branches will be opened during this fiscal to take the total to 530.

The bank will be shortly launching a new product “NRE Privilege- Diamond” for the NRI segment who account for 20% of our deposits.

“Our focus during the current financial year is to increase the CASA funds by adding 5 lakhs new customers as well as non-interest income by sale of mutual funds and insurance products.The response to our CASA campaign has been quite encouraging”, stated Dr. V.A. Joseph, Chairman & CEO of the Bank.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

THE SOUTH INDIAN BANK LTD :-

CORPORATE PROFILE

South Indian Bank (SIB) is one of the leading scheduled commercial banks in India with a strong focus on technology and service delivery.

SIB has many firsts to its credit .

SIB is –

*The first in the private sector in India to open an NRI branch .

*The first private sector bank to start an Industrial Finance branch in India.

*The first Indian traditional Bank to achieve all branch/office inter-connectivity and register 100% CBS .

*The first private sector bank from India to provide managerial support to an Exchange House in the

Middle East .

South Indian Bank has registered an all time high net profit for the financial year 2007-08. The bank has declared a net profit of Rs. 151.62 crore for the current financial year as against Rs. 86.49 crore for the previous year registering a growth of 75.30%. With the advantage of 100% branches covered by Core Banking Solution, South Indian Bank was the first in its peer group to announce audited results for the financial year 2007-08.

The total business of the Bank stood at Rs 25,910 crore as on 31-03-08 registering a growth of 26.10%. While the deposits went up by Rs. 2,917 crore from Rs.12,239 crore to Rs. 15,156 crore registering a growth of 23.83 %, the advances increased by Rs. 2,446 crore from Rs. 8,308 crore to Rs. 10,754 crore registering a growth of 29.45 % .

With this the Bank has exceeded all the three ambitious targets the Bank had set in 2005 for achieving the milestones of Rs15000 crores , Rs 20000 crores and Rs.25000 crores in total business respectively for 2005-06 , 2006-07 and 2007-08 .

Due to effective recovery measures resorted to during the year, the Bank could bring down its Gross NPA percentage from 3.94 to 1.78 and Net NPA from 0.98 % to 0.33 % .

The Bank crossed the milestone of Rs.1000 crore of networth during 2007-08.

The major FIIs in the FII holding of 47% in the Bank’s equity include ,India Capital Fund, International Finance Corporation,Acacia Partners LP,India Fund Inc.,Goldman Sachs Investments(Mauritius),Morgan Stanley(Mauritius),India Institutional Fund,Deutsche Securities Mauritius,FID Funds(Mauritius) etc.

The Capital adequacy ratio of the bank is as high as 13.80% against the regulatory requirement of 9%.

The Bank had declared 2007-08 as the year of youth and has launched a novel deposit scheme “YOUTH PLUS” with technology features focusing the younger generation.

South Indian Bank, has now presence in 23 States/Union Territories having established a network of 502 Core Banking Branches ,26 CBS Extension Counters and 227 online ATM Centres

The Bank is planning to open 28 more branches during the current financial year to take the total number of branches to 530. Our focus during the next financial year will be on increasing the CASA funds as well as non interest income by sale of mutual funds and insurance products.

Another Milestone –Inauguration of the 14th Region

The 14th Regional Office of the bank to give administrative support to the branches in the tech-savvy state of Andhra Pradesh was inaugurated by Mr. K.Rosaiah,Hon:Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh .Dr.N.Krishna Mohan ,Director,IDRBT will be the Guest of Honour. Mr.M.Valsan ,Executive Director of the Bank presided over the function.

Technology As The Key Driver of Business

The Bank’s ambitious technology up-gradation project named ‘SIBERTECH’ by introducing a Centralized Core Banking Solution ‘Finacle’ in technology partnership with the Infosys Technologies Limited is complete and all the branches/offices all over the country have been linked to the Centralized Data Centre at Kochi and hence 100 % of the Bank’s business is now absolutely on-line .The Disaster Recovery Facility is functioning at Bangalore.

With the up-gradation of technology , SIB now offers a host of hi-tech products which enables the customers bank from anywhere , saving them time , money and hassles . This means that they can avail of a range of solutions and make convenience banking a way of life . For this the Bank has launched various value-added products and services like Global Debit-cum-ATM card, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking etc.

SIB’s Global ATM – cum – Debit Card can be used at over 8 lac ATMs and 120 lac merchant establishments all over the world.The Global ATM – cum – Debit Card of SIB, which recently became the first Kerala based bank to have directly joined the National Financial Switch (NFS) of the Institute for the Development of Research in Banking Technology (the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India) can also be used at over 20,000 ATMs all over India . 227 On-line ATM Centres have also been set up all over the country.

The bank has tied up with ICICI Prudential life insurance for selling of insurance products at over 284 SIB branches in Kerala.This is a major step towards growing the fee-based income of the bank. This partnership, would help, for the first time in the country ,the policyholders of ICICI Prudential to pay their first as well as renewal premiums in cash at over 284 branches in Kerala.The Bank has also a tie up with Bajaj Alliance for distribution of general insurance products.

South Indian Bank is the first private sector bank from India to provide management support to an exchange house in the Middle East..This enables SIB to provide top quality service, to NRIs looking at remittances to India , in a technology –driven environment .

The Bank very recently could bag a special award for excellence in banking technology from IDRBT which is the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India .This award was presented to the Bank as a national level recognition to the excellent contribution made in the area of information systems, security policies and practices .The bank has bagged this award by tightly competing with all categories of banks in India such as Foreign Banks, Private sector banks, public sector banks and co-operative banks .

The Bank, as part of the global brand building exercise, has signed mega star Padmashree Bharat Mammootty as its Global Brand Ambassador. His tech savvy image goes hand-in-hand with our bank which has always been in the forefront of embracing technology. South Indian Bank has also unveiled a new corporate logo that demonstrates the major transformation the bank has undergone since its inception .

The Bank has launched a NetBanking initiative to provide real-time fund transaction for the online banking customers through ‘southindian bank.com’ , the online banking channel of the bank. This will make possible for the retail and also corporate customers of the Bank for online debits/credits from/to authorized accounts. This enriched Net-banking product has the potential for utility payments and payment gateway (shopping mall) facilities. This customer- value proposition contains functionalities to support consumer (Retail) e-banking and also corporate e-banking .

Recently the Bank has been rated as a “Top NPA Manager” in “ASSOCHAM- ECO PULSE” study for having reduced Net NPA substantially within one year.

Conscious of the corporate social responsibility , South Indian Bank has launched the ‘Money Lender-Free Village” pilot project at Meloor in Trichur District of Kerala .The main objective of the Project is replace the non-institutional, usurious, exploitative rural credit mechanism of private lending with lending through Self-Help Groups (SHGs)and direct lending by SIB. Under this initiative, SHGs act as extension of SIB to reach out to villages in even the remotest locations. This project though started very recently could garner acclaim from many quarters.

The Bank is committed to become a technology- driven , customer-oriented bank (the new corporate slogan being -“Experience Next Generation Banking”)where passion for excellence is a way of life , innovation is a tradition , commitment to values unshaken and customer loyalty is abiding .

The long-term corporate objective is to emerge as the most preferred Bank in India, with core competence in fostering relationship banking, garnering core deposit with accent on cost, creating high yielding quality assets through focused marketing, qualitative appraisal and effective monitoring. We are dedicated to provide quality service to our customers and maintain high standards in corporate responsibility.

Despite acquiring the latest technological capabilities available to the banking industry in the country, the Bank will continue the emphasis on personalized customer service, which has been the Bank’s core strength for all these 79 years. Incidentally , the Bank had also been selected , in the Outlook Money – C- Fore Survey, as the best private sector Bank in India in the ‘Service Quality ‘ segment .

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About ARC- FS (www.arc-fs.com.com)

ARC-FS provides Financial Research & Analytics, Business & Corporate Intelligence, Management & Strategic Consultancy and Content Management services to the clients in the global capital markets. Acting as strategic partner to its clients, ARC-FS shares their values and goals, and provides them insights. It adds value to its clients' business through very high quality research & analysis and differentiated investment advice. It has been also involved in lot ofinvestor relation services for many listed companies in India.

About Hedgecasa (www.hedgecasa.com)

Hedgecasa provides comprehensive data management services (structuring, amalgamation and analysis) to the fund managers of hedge fund industry. The companydeep dives into various facts and figuresof the various companies andhelps hedge investorproviding accurate and structured data in a powerful framework. By integrating all data sources into a structured system, it helps investors analysing hedge funds to create portfolios with real value. Hedgecasa is the only firm specialised in providing all these services under one umbrella and deals with several hedge funds across the globe.

Said Mr. Lim Hng Kiang, Deputy Chairman of the MAS and Minister of Trade and Industry, “The Financial Technologies Group’s interest to establish SMX in Singapore, within close proximity to the region’s largest producers and consumers of several commodities, underscores Singapore's position as a key commodities trading hub.”

Mr. Jignesh Shah, Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies also announced Board and Advisory Board of SMX comprising of eminent and highly distinguished personalities from the world of finance including –

1. Mr. Ang Swee Tian – Chairman of the Board.
   • Former president of SGX
   • Inducted in the FIA Futures Hall of Fame in 2007.
2. Mr. Jignesh Shah – Vice Chairman
   • Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies
   • Founder of Financial Technologies (India) Limited that promoted SMX - Singapore, MCX, DGCX – Dubai, GBOT – Mauritius, IEX among several other exchanges.
   • 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year' award for Business Transformation
3. Mr. Vijay Iyengar –Board Member
   • Chairman of SICCI and MD of Agrocorp International Pte Ltd,
4. Mr. Framroze Pochara – Board Member
   • Executive Director of SMX Clearing Corporation

Advisory Board members include -

1. Mr. Leo Melamed – Chairman of Advisory Board

· Chairman Emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange

(CME) Group and globally recognised as the founder

of financial futures markets

1. Mr. Myron Scholes – Member, Advisory Board

· Nobel Memorial Prize winner for Black-Scholes options pricing model

1. Mr. David Yeow – Member, Advisory Board

· Partner, Rajah and Tann, LLP

1. Mr. John Burbank – Member, Advisory Board

· Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Passport Capital LLC

Mr. Ang Swee Tian, Chairman of SMX said “This is a truly eventful day for Singapore. Financial markets and commodity markets are very tightly coupled. The new exchange will add to the stature of Singapore as global financial centre and more investments will flow into Singapore, as it becomes a One Stop Financial and Trading hub.”

Mr. Jignesh Shah, Vice Chairman of SMX, Chairman and Group CEO of Financial Technologies, said, “Singapore ranks among the top three international financial centres in the world today along with New York and London with an established trading and commodity hub, open economy, robust regulatory framework under Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), a thriving port, business friendly environment, and its geographical location – making it an ideal destination to host an international commodity derivatives exchange like SMX. Also markets are the barometer of growth for any economy and SMX will be the growth engine for Asia from Singapore with rest of the world – through transparent price discovery, efficient transaction execution, price volatility, risk hedging and will propagate structured private and public investment deep into the economy”.

The Chairman of the Advisory Board of SMX Mr. Leo Melamed, said, “I amvery pleased to be associated with this path breaking initiative of the Financial Technologies in Singapore. We expect Asia to lead the growth in the commodities markets in the next few years. Market participants around the world will benefit from price discovery of these commodities in Asia. The SMX will be a barometer for the dynamic demand-supply fundamentals in this region.

Mr. Chong Lit Cheong, Chief Executive Officer of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said, “SMX's entry into Singapore is a welcomed development by IE Singapore as it complements our ongoing efforts to develop Singapore as the Asian commodity trading hub. Already, Singapore is Asia's price discovery centre for energy and rubber. With growing investor interest in commodity derivatives as well as increasing focus on risk management due to volatile commodity prices, SMX will reinforce the commodity trading and risk management infrastructure in Singapore.”

The announcement was made at the ‘Global Financial Markets Summit 2008: A CEO discussion forum exploring Asia’s commodity derivatives markets’, organized by Financial Technologies Group and FOW and supported by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and held at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore today.

SMX will facilitate commodities trading in the Asian time zone and reflect the vibrancy of Asian markets. The new exchange will provide a platform for futures and options trading on precious metals, base metals, energy, agricultural commodities, currency pairs, carbon credits and commodity indices. Though many commodity exchanges exist in the Western world, no such international commodity exchange, trading a diversified range of products on a single platform exists in Asia. SMX will fulfil this need of a global exchange in Asia.

SMX is promoted by Financial Technologies (www.ftindia.com) a US$1.84 billion (as on 31st March 2008) global leader in creating and operating technology centric, next generation financial markets. Financial Technologies has successful track record of operating deep, vibrant and liquid exchange network in Middle East and India.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Singapore Mercantile Exchange

Singapore Mercantile Exchange (“SMX”) an international commodity derivatives exchange situated in Singapore will offer a state-of-the art electronic trading platform for trading a diversified basket of commodities including futures and options contracts on precious metals, base metals, agriculture commodities, currencies and commodity indices. SMX is currently in the process of obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Dealers, brokers and their customers will be able to connect to SMX’s trading platform through a number of connectivity options, including leased lines, dial-up, multi-protocol label switching and the Internet either with the native front-end provided by the SMX or the front-end developed by independent software vendors.

SMX’s platform will provide a fair, transparent and efficient mechanism for price discovery with orders being matched electronically. The best buy order will be matched with the best sell order based on a price-time priority, ensuring best prices for both buyer and seller. SMX will act as the counterparty for each transaction executed on its platform through settlement guarantees provided by its clearing house, the Singapore Mercantile Exchange Clearing Corporation, a 100% subsidiary of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange.

More information is available at www.smx.com.sg

About Financial Technologies (NSE: FINANTECH, BSE: FINTECH)

Financial Technologies (India) Limited is a US$1.84 billion (as on 31st March 2008) global leader in creating and operating technology centric, next generation financial markets that are transparent, efficient, and liquid, across multi asset classes including equities, commodities, currencies and bonds, among others.

Its highly robust and scalable exchange and trading technology, coupled with deep domain expertise, gives Financial Technologies a decisive edge in driving mass disruptive innovation at a speed and cost of execution that are unmatched in the financial markets. This expertise uniquely positions Financial Technologies as a creator of electronic, organized, and regulated financial markets for new asset classes and new investor classes that are either underserved or economically unviable to be served by traditional markets.

Barclays customers can receive a total cash back amount of up to Rs 500 per month. This amount will be credited to the customer’s account in the first week of the next month. New customers who open accounts during the promotional period are also eligible if they make at least three transactions per month, each with a value of Rs 500 or more.

Below are some of the highlights of this exclusive 10% cash back offer on Barclays debit cards:

• 10% cash back on point of sale transactions at any merchant outlet, including grocery store purchases, restaurant bill payments and all other shopping transactions
• A customer needs to do a minimum of 3 purchase transactions per month during the campaign period (1 July 2008 to 30 September 2008)
• Each purchase transaction must have a minimum value of Rs 500 to qualify
• ATM transactions of any nature do not qualify for the cash back
• Purchase transactions done outside India on the Debit Card do not qualify

For any queries, please contact the customer service desk at 1800 233 6565 – toll free number (MTNL and BSNL users) – or dial 6000 7888 (for private service users).

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Barclays

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with an extensive international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs 135,000 people.

Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for over 38 million customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.

The interest rates on NRE Fixed Deposits have been increased by up to 15 bps for various maturities.

Interest rates on 1 year FCNR Deposits denominated in US Dollars have been increased to 2.56% p.a.. Interest rates on 1 year GBP denominated FCNR deposits have been increased to 5.70%.

(A) NRE Fixed Deposits:

Maturity Period

New Interest Rate (% per annum w.e.f. Jul 1, 2008)

Old Interest Rate (% per annum w.e.f. Jun 1, 2008)

12 months & above but less than 18 months

3.31

3.16

18 months & above but less than 24 months

3.31

3.16

24 months & above but less than 36 months

3.60

3.46

36 months to 120 months

3.95

3.81

]

(B) FCNR Deposits:

Maturity Period

Interest Rate Comparison (Jul. 08 Vs Jun. 08)

USD

GBP

EURO

JPY

New

Old

New

Old

New

Old

New

Old

12 months & above but less than 24 months

2.56

2.41

5.70

5.40

4.64

4.34

0.41

0.37

24 months & above but less than 36 months

2.85

2.71

5.50

5.26

4.62

4.23

0.49

0.53

36 months & above but less than 48 months

3.20

3.06

5.47

5.21

4.55

4.11

0.59

0.62

48 months & above but less than 60 months

3.42

3.30

5.41

5.12

4.47

4.03

0.67

0.75

60 months

3.56

3.47

5.32

5.02

4.41

3.98

0.75

0.82

Maturity Period

Interest Rate Comparison (July 08 Vs June 08)

AUD

CAD

New

Old

New

Old

12 months & above but less than 24 months

7.77

7.66

3.29

2.92

24 months & above but less than 36 months

7.21

7.08

2.86

2.76

36 months & above but less than 48 months

7.12

6.95

3.01

2.97

48 months & above but less than 60 months

7.13

6.96

3.11

3.10

60 months

7.02

6.85

3.19

3.19

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About ICICI Bank Ltd: ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of about USD 121 billion at March 31, 2008. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries including India.

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release, which contain words or phrases such as 'will', 'would', etc., including about transactions that may be finalized at a later stage, and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute 'forward-looking statements'. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to our ability to obtain statutory and regulatory approvals and to successfully implement our strategy, future levels of non-performing loans, transactions that may not fructify, our growth and expansion in business, the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses, technological implementation and changes, the actual growth in demand for banking products and services, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks ICICI Bank undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.

Mr. Milind Chalisgaonkar, Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance said “We are delighted to receive the certificate of registration and shall shortly commence the business operations. We are confident of serving customers with our innovative products, strong distribution, personalized service and efficient claims settlement. We aim to be the preferred company in the General Insurance market within next few years.”

Bharti holds 74% and AXA holds 26% of equity interest in the company. The company is headquartered in Bangalore and will establish a pan-India business network with offices and partnerships.

Bharti Group and AXA Group had launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company in 2006. They also have a joint venture for asset management - Bharti AXA Investment Managers. Illustrating their commitment to the Indian market, AXA Group will contribute their domain expertise, global blueprint, best practices and technology, whereas Bharti Group will bring in its strong local market expertise and countrywide retail distribution network.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Bharti Enterprises

Bharti Enterprises is one of India’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri business, financial services and retail. Bharti has been a pioneering force in the telecom sector with many firsts and innovations to its credit. Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company, is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 69.15 million customers as of end of May 2008, spanning Mobile services, Telemedia services and Enterprise services. Bharti Airtel has been ranked amongst the best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007. Bharti Teletech is the country’s largest manufacturer and exporter of telephone terminals. Bharti has a joint venture - FieldFresh Foods (P) Ltd – with Del Monte Foods India Pvt. Ltd., to offer fresh and processed fruits and vegetables in the domestic as well as international markets including Europe, USA and Middle East. Bharti has a joint venture - Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd. - with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. Bharti also has a joint venture for an asset management company - Bharti AXA Investment Managers Private Ltd. - with AXA IM and AXA APH. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business under a company called Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. It also has a joint venture - Bharti Wal-Mart Private Ltd. - with Wal-Mart for wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India.

About AXA

AXA Group is a worldwide leader in Financial Protection. AXA’s operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA had Euro 1,281 billion in asset under management as of December 31, 2007. For full year 2007, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 93.6 billion and IFRS adjusted earnings to Euro 6.1 billion.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISIN FR0000120608-Bloomberg: CS FP- Reuters: AXAF.PA). The American Depository Share is also listed on NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.

BPLR (Benchmark Prime Lending Rate)

Due to increase in CRR and Repo rate by RBI and hardening scenario of interest rate, BoR has increased the BPLR (Benchmark Prime Lending Rate) for the first time in last 15 months by 50 basis points, i.e. from 14.50% to 15.0% w.e.f 01.07.2008. Accordingly w.e.f. July 1, 2008, on all borrower accounts where interest rate is linked to BPLR, effective interest rate would go up by 0.50%.

With rise in BPLR, Interest rate structure of Real Estate Sector and Advance against Bank’s own TDRs has also been revised. Looking to high risk (high sensitivity) under Real Estate sector, spread over BPLR has been revised from 2% to 4%. Further due to rise in CRR cost, Interest rate structure of “Advance Against Bank’s Own TDRs” has also been revised. All these revisions are effective from July 1, 2008.

RPLR (Retail Prime Lending Rate) / Home Loan Rate

Considering the various economic factors like increase in CRR & Repo rates by RBI, the Bank has revised Retail Prime Lending Rate from existing 9.25% to 9.50% leading to revision in Interest rate by Bank of Rajasthan on floating rate Home Loan under “Apna Ghar Scheme” w.e.f. 01.07.2008. Further the bank has also revised cut-off limit of loans from Rs.20.00 lakhs to Rs.30 Lakhs for passing of benefit of lower interest rate.

Revised rate of interest on home loan

(w.e.f 01.07.2008)

*Please refer attached document for the table.

To benefit its more than 2 million trusted customers across the country Bank of Rajasthan has also revised its interest rate on term deposit effective from 1st July, 2008. By increasing this rate bank has proved that the bank is behind none in extending the benefits to its customers. The highest interest rate on Term Deposit is 9.50% p.a for 21 months.

Additional interest rate of 0.50% will be given to resident senior citizens.

Revised rate of interest on Domestic Term Deposits (Including NRO deposits) (effective from 01.07.2008)

(Rate of interest % p.a.)

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Bank of Rajasthan

Established way back in 1943, Bank of Rajasthan is one of the fastest growing private banks in the country, which has made strides by making consistent profits for past several years. With a wide network of 463 branches in the entire length and breadth of the country. Bank of Rajasthan has emerged as one of the largest private sector banks in the country. The bank has made tremendous and historical progress during the last few years, thanks to the prudent corporate governance and vision shown by the new management. The Bank has over two-million customer base and offers ATM facilities at over 10,500 ATMs across the country with strategic tie-up with other banks. All the branches of bank spread over 286 cities across India in 22 states and 2 union territories and all branches offering online services. The bank has covered 125 cities in Rajasthan alone.

Financial Highlights for the FY 2007-08

The bank has maintained its growth in net profit for the financial year 2007-08. The net profit of the bank increased to Rs. 115.20 crore for the year ended March 31.2008 against Rs. 110.57 crore for the previous full year. The bank has declared 1 for 5 bonus shares (i.e. 1 equity share for every 5 equity share). In last year also bank gave bonus shares in the ratio of 1share for every 4 shares held. This is the second bonus in a row in last two years.

Salvo’s Global Liquidity Workshop is organized in response to the recent focus on vulnerabilities in the valuation and distribution of risk in global financial institutions. This 2-day workshop held in Singapore will enable delegates to gain in-depth tips on evaluating and managing their liquidity risk.

The masterclass combines case studies and discussion sessions that provide participants with a framework to analyze and review its applications towards their organizations. Participants would include individuals with knowledge on financial profitability and risk management and those involved in designing and implementing credit, market, operational risk management as well as ALM and Basel II / ICAAP frameworks. Auditors with interest in banking risk management systems as well as trading officers will also benefit greatly from this platform.

Extensive coverage will be given on how banks handle liquidity challenges compared to their counterparts that share partial liability. Marketability and tradability with regard to liquidating financial products will also be covered under discussions on current market conditions.

Speaking for this workshop is a senior consultant specializing in risk management who is currently engaged with IRIS integrated risk management in Zurich. He has undertaken financial risk and profitability analysis projects internationally working with companies in Europe, Asia and the USA. With vast expertise in designing financial models for credit risk, liquidity risk, operational risk and ALM systems, some of the companies he has worked for include SEB Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Bank of Piraeus, Invest bank, Mercury Interactive, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Alpharma, and many others.

Information on the program can be found at http://www.salvoglobal.com/Salvo%20-%20LiquidityRisk.htm. Do check the page for regular updates.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Mr. V.V.R. Sastry, CMD, BEL, said that the Company has been on the path of growth over the last decade and is in the process of consolidation in areas of BEL’s core strengths. Time has come for BEL to revisit its growth and business strategies and make it more suited to today’s competitive environment. KPMG will draw detailed business plans for the chosen areas and also assist in implementation and project monitoring where necessary, he said.

Mr. Richard Rekhy, Chief Operating Officer, KPMG India, said that competition had become a global phenomenon today and modern businesses need to adapt to it quickly. KPMG has, in the past, helped various other firms evolve appropriate strategies to meet the challenging needs of globalisation. “We are confident that BEL can reaffirm its position as a leader in the industry and register a quantum jump in growth,” he said.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About BEL

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was established in Bangalore by the Government of India under the Ministry of Defence in 1954 to meet the specialised electronic needs of the Indian defence services. Over the years, it has grown into a multi-product, multi-technology, multi-Unit company serving the needs of customers in diverse fields in India and abroad. Having been conferred the prestigious Navaratna status based on its consistent performance, BEL looks forward to leverage the increased functional autonomy for further business growth and diversification.

About KPMG

The ICICIdirect superstore will offer personalised servicethrough trained Relationship Managers and will employ proprietary tools and technologiesto generate customised financial planning and guidance based on the requirement of customers.

Commenting on the new store, Mr Anup Bagchi, Executive Director – ICICI Securities Ltd said, “Rajkot is the fastest growing city in Gujarat and there is a larger section of the society which can benefit from personalized investment planning. The ICICIdirect Superstore will make financial planning and guidance accessible to salaried individuals and households in a service speak that is free of financial jargon. In the coming weeks we will also be inaugurating stores in Anand, Mysore, Coimbatore and Manesar in Gurgaon.”

ICICIdirect will also organise customised programmes for Senior Citizens and Housewives to help them prepare an optimised investment plan.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

“During the current fiscal we will strive to achieve our net profit target of Rs 190 crore.We had, even at the beginning of this year decided to add 5 lakh new customers in Savings Account and are working towards this.This addition will increase our CASA by 3 per cent . Besides CASA, we will also focus during this financial year on increasing non- interest income by sale of mutual funds and insurance products”, Dr Joseph added .

South Indian Bank which has been rated as a “Top NPA Manager” in “ASSOCHAM- ECO PULSE” study for having reduced Net NPA substantially within one year could bring down its Gross NPA percentage from 3.94 to 1.78 and Net NPA from 0.98 % to 0.33 % as on 31-03-2008 ,against the target of 0.50 % .

The first Indian traditional Bank to achieve all branch/office inter-connectivity and register 100% CBS ,SIB had also crossed the milestone of Rs.1000 crore of net worth during 2007-08. .

The Capital adequacy ratio of the bank is as high as 13.80% against the regulatory requirement of 9%. The major FIIs in the FII holding of 47% in the Bank’s equity include India Capital Fund, International Finance Corporation, Acacia Partners LP,India Fund Inc.,Goldman Sachs Investments(Mauritius),Morgan Stanley(Mauritius),India Institutional Fund,Deutsche Securities Mauritius,FID Funds(Mauritius) etc.

The Bank has now presence in 23 States/Union Territories having established a network of 503 Core Banking Branches ,26 CBS Extension Counters and 230 online ATM Centres .The Bank is planning to open 27 more branches during the current financial year to take the total number of branches to 530 .

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

THE SOUTH INDIAN BANK LTD :-

CORPORATE PROFILE

South Indian Bank (SIB) is one of the leading scheduled commercial banks in India with a strong focus on technology and service delivery.

SIB has many firsts to its credit .

SIB is –

*The first in the private sector in India to open an NRI branch .

*The first private sector bank to start an Industrial Finance branch in India.

*The first Indian traditional Bank to achieve all branch/office inter-connectivity and register 100% CBS .

*The first private sector bank from India to provide managerial support to an Exchange House in the

Middle East .

South Indian Bank has registered an all time high net profit for the financial year 2007-08. The bank has declared a net profit of Rs. 151.62 crore for the current financial year as against Rs. 86.49 crore for the previous year registering a growth of 75.30%. With the advantage of 100% branches covered by Core Banking Solution, South Indian Bank was the first in its peer group to announce audited results for the financial year 2007-08.

The total business of the Bank stood at Rs 25,910 crore as on 31-03-08 registering a growth of 26.10%. While the deposits went up by Rs. 2,917 crore from Rs.12,239 crore to Rs. 15,156 crore registering a growth of 23.83 %, the advances increased by Rs. 2,446 crore from Rs. 8,308 crore to Rs. 10,754 crore registering a growth of 29.45 % .

With this the Bank has exceeded all the three ambitious targets the Bank had set in 2005 for achieving the milestones of Rs15000 crores , Rs 20000 crores and Rs.25000 crores in total business respectively for 2005-06 , 2006-07 and 2007-08 .

Due to effective recovery measures resorted to during the year, the Bank could bring down its Gross NPA percentage from 3.94 to 1.78 and Net NPA from 0.98 % to 0.33 % .

The Bank crossed the milestone of Rs.1000 crore of networth during 2007-08.

The major FIIs in the FII holding of 47% in the Bank’s equity include ,India Capital Fund, International Finance Corporation,Acacia Partners LP,India Fund Inc.,Goldman Sachs Investments(Mauritius),Morgan Stanley(Mauritius),India Institutional Fund,Deutsche Securities Mauritius,FID Funds(Mauritius) etc.

The Capital adequacy ratio of the bank is as high as 13.80% against the regulatory requirement of 9%.

The Bank had declared 2007-08 as the year of youth and has launched a novel deposit scheme “YOUTH PLUS” with technology features focusing the younger generation.

South Indian Bank, has now presence in 23 States/Union Territories having established a network of 502 Core Banking Branches ,26 CBS Extension Counters and 227 online ATM Centres

The Bank is planning to open 28 more branches during the current financial year to take the total number of branches to 530. Our focus during the next financial year will be on increasing the CASA funds as well as non interest income by sale of mutual funds and insurance products.

Another Milestone –Inauguration of the 14th Region

The 14th Regional Office of the bank to give administrative support to the branches in the tech-savvy state of Andhra Pradesh was inaugurated by Mr. K.Rosaiah,Hon:Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh .Dr.N.Krishna Mohan ,Director,IDRBT will be the Guest of Honour. Mr.M.Valsan ,Executive Director of the Bank presided over the function.

Technology As The Key Driver of Business

The Bank’s ambitious technology up-gradation project named ‘SIBERTECH’ by introducing a Centralized Core Banking Solution ‘Finacle’ in technology partnership with the Infosys Technologies Limited is complete and all the branches/offices all over the country have been linked to the Centralized Data Centre at Kochi and hence 100 % of the Bank’s business is now absolutely on-line .The Disaster Recovery Facility is functioning at Bangalore.

With the up-gradation of technology , SIB now offers a host of hi-tech products which enables the customers bank from anywhere , saving them time , money and hassles . This means that they can avail of a range of solutions and make convenience banking a way of life . For this the Bank has launched various value-added products and services like Global Debit-cum-ATM card, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking etc.

SIB’s Global ATM – cum – Debit Card can be used at over 8 lac ATMs and 120 lac merchant establishments all over the world.The Global ATM – cum – Debit Card of SIB, which recently became the first Kerala based bank to have directly joined the National Financial Switch (NFS) of the Institute for the Development of Research in Banking Technology (the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India) can also be used at over 20,000 ATMs all over India . 227 On-line ATM Centres have also been set up all over the country.

The bank has tied up with ICICI Prudential life insurance for selling of insurance products at over 284 SIB branches in Kerala.This is a major step towards growing the fee-based income of the bank. This partnership, would help, for the first time in the country ,the policyholders of ICICI Prudential to pay their first as well as renewal premiums in cash at over 284 branches in Kerala.The Bank has also a tie up with Bajaj Alliance for distribution of general insurance products.

South Indian Bank is the first private sector bank from India to provide management support to an exchange house in the Middle East..This enables SIB to provide top quality service, to NRIs looking at remittances to India , in a technology –driven environment .

The Bank very recently could bag a special award for excellence in banking technology from IDRBT which is the technical arm of the Reserve Bank of India .This award was presented to the Bank as a national level recognition to the excellent contribution made in the area of information systems, security policies and practices .The bank has bagged this award by tightly competing with all categories of banks in India such as Foreign Banks, Private sector banks, public sector banks and co-operative banks .

The Bank, as part of the global brand building exercise, has signed mega star Padmashree Bharat Mammootty as its Global Brand Ambassador. His tech savvy image goes hand-in-hand with our bank which has always been in the forefront of embracing technology. South Indian Bank has also unveiled a new corporate logo that demonstrates the major transformation the bank has undergone since its inception .

The Bank has launched a NetBanking initiative to provide real-time fund transaction for the online banking customers through ‘southindian bank.com’ , the online banking channel of the bank. This will make possible for the retail and also corporate customers of the Bank for online debits/credits from/to authorized accounts. This enriched Net-banking product has the potential for utility payments and payment gateway (shopping mall) facilities. This customer- value proposition contains functionalities to support consumer (Retail) e-banking and also corporate e-banking .

Recently the Bank has been rated as a “Top NPA Manager” in “ASSOCHAM- ECO PULSE” study for having reduced Net NPA substantially within one year.

Conscious of the corporate social responsibility , South Indian Bank has launched the ‘Money Lender-Free Village” pilot project at Meloor in Trichur District of Kerala .The main objective of the Project is replace the non-institutional, usurious, exploitative rural credit mechanism of private lending with lending through Self-Help Groups (SHGs)and direct lending by SIB. Under this initiative, SHGs act as extension of SIB to reach out to villages in even the remotest locations. This project though started very recently could garner acclaim from many quarters.

The Bank is committed to become a technology- driven , customer-oriented bank (the new corporate slogan being -“Experience Next Generation Banking”)where passion for excellence is a way of life , innovation is a tradition , commitment to values unshaken and customer loyalty is abiding .

The long-term corporate objective is to emerge as the most preferred Bank in India, with core competence in fostering relationship banking, garnering core deposit with accent on cost, creating high yielding quality assets through focused marketing, qualitative appraisal and effective monitoring. We are dedicated to provide quality service to our customers and maintain high standards in corporate responsibility.

Despite acquiring the latest technological capabilities available to the banking industry in the country, the Bank will continue the emphasis on personalized customer service, which has been the Bank’s core strength for all these 79 years. Incidentally , the Bank had also been selected , in the Outlook Money – C- Fore Survey, as the best private sector Bank in India in the ‘Service Quality ‘ segment .

The Company’s national footprint, with a presence in many metropolitan and rural areas, has allowed UTI AMC to leverage the UTI name and establish UTI as a brand, which is recognised by prospective customers across the country. The pan-India presence and recognition generates and supports customer/ investor confidence in the ability to provide consistent quality services wherever located. UTI AMC has always banked on its strong distribution network to connect to the consumers.

The Company, which has the largest client base among mutual fund providers in India, has increased the number of UTI Financial Centres (“UFCs”) to 90 as of June 11, 2008. It has also increased the number of Client Representatives to 306 (as of June 11, 2008) and that of Chief Agents to 157 (as of June 11, 2008). It has 31,720 Financial Advisors as of the same date.

UTI AMC Ltd. has built upon its comprehensive distribution network with both in-house capabilities and external distribution channels. It now reaches clients through a number of distribution channels, including retail distribution consisting of ten regional offices and two satellite offices (as of September 30, 2007); district representatives and collection centres, and independent financial advisors. The size and broad distribution network provides it with economies of scale, particularly in distribution and marketing activities.

The other distribution channels consist of institutions, private and foreign banks, PSU banks and post offices (with access to approximately 1,600 PSU bank branches and 2,000 post offices as of September 30, 2007), and corporate distribution houses. The wide-spread distribution network gives it access to 455 districts (out of 604 districts in total) as of September 30, 2007, including remote areas, and reinforces the strong presence in small and medium towns, cities and villages. The funds are also distributed through its foreign offices in London, Dubai, Bahrain and Singapore. The Company also has a very strong online platform for interacting and engaging prospective customers in different parts of the country.

The Company’s list of clients includes individual retail investors, banks, corporate and other institutional investors, public sector undertakings ("PSUs"), and overseas investors. It believes that the nature of its clients and distribution channels, as well as good relationships with clients, have resulted in a stable and growing investor base. Individual retail clients represent over one-half of the total client base, which it believes, helps insulate it from excessive short-term churn and volatility in the funds. The broad client base also provides it with a number of opportunities, including cross-selling different funds.

The Company, along with its subsidiaries, manages domestic mutual funds, as well as provides portfolio management services and manages overseas funds, venture capital and private equity funds. Its total assets under management ("AUM") equalled Rs 495,418 million as of September 30, 2007 (as mentioned in the Draft Red Herring Prospectus). It has a high concentration of equity and balanced/hybrid funds; and one of the highest market shares for equity funds (10.0%) and the highest market share for balanced/hybrid funds (41.9%) in India, as of November 30, 2007.

The Company manages 76 domestic equity, balanced/hybrid, income and liquid mutual funds. Its domestic funds had AUM of Rs. 450,026 million, as of September 30, 2007, constituting approximately 9.4% of the total AUM invested in mutual funds in India and making it a leading fund provider, according to AMFI.

The Company’s AUM for domestic mutual funds increased from Rs. 138,967 million as of January 31, 2003, to Rs. 450,026 million as of September 30, 2007, representing a compound annual growth rate of 28.6%.

The Company also provides portfolio management services to approximately 320 clients. It has been recently selected as one of three asset managers to provide portfolio management services to the National Investment Fund. In addition, it has been selected by the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority as one of three asset managers to manage funds under a new pension scheme of the Government of India. It manages offshore and foreign institutional investor funds (including a co-branded fund with Shinsei Bank of Japan), as well as venture capital and private equity funds. As of September 30, 2007, its portfolio management, overseas, venture capital and private equity funds had total AUM of Rs. 45,392 million.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Santanu Mukherjee, country manager, South Asia, Visa International, said, “Visa eMarketplace is designed to be an efficient, seamless and transparent procurement system for the commercial and government sectors. It helps to eliminate the need for paper-based purchase orders and approvals. Essentially, eMarketplace reduces manual effort as the process of payment and management of costs is automated. We are proud to partner with ICICI Bank and Elcom to provide this service.”

Visa eMarketplace offers a secure online option that builds on the existing Visa Purchasing Card platform. Sellers can give buyers easy access to their product catalogues while buyers can have better understanding and management of their inventories, for example, by providing purchase analysis to help in the planning of expenses. The records provided also help ensure detailed tracking for audit purposes. Core to Visa eMarketplace is the Visa Purchasing Card which is meant for low-value, high-volume purchase of non-personal goods and services.

Sachin Khandelwal, Head – Cards Product Group, ICICI Bank said, “In keeping with our tradition of innovation, ICICI Bank is the first bank in the Asia Pacific region to launch Visa eMarketplace for ICICI Bank’s Purchase Card customers. Over the last decade, the credit card industry was driven primarily by consumer cards. Going forward, ICICI Bank sees significant growth coming from the so far untapped and still nascent Commercial Cards products like Purchase Card, Corporate Card and Distribution Card. ICICI Bank Purchase Card and Visa eMarketplace are designed to offer corporates and government organizations a robust, transparent, more economical and secure procure-to-pay solution.

Corporates and government departments can use Visa eMarketplace to make purchases online from their suppliers and use ICICI Bank Purchase Card to make payment. ICICI Bank believes the Visa eMarketplace platform will add significant value to vendor payment processes of corporates and government departments. The competitive prices that vendors will offer here would be very beneficial to most large and small corporates for such purchases.”

William Lock, Chairman, Elcom Systems Ltd added, “The combination of the Visa payment card with Elcom’s world-class eProcurement Platform improves the procurement process in any organization. Our technology powers some of the most successful eProcurement implementations in the world. Elcom has a proven track record of delivering innovative and flexible solutions and we look forward to working with Visa on this new and exciting development.”

Visa eMarketplace is an eProcurement service that does not require participating organizations to invest in hardware, software or continuous upgrades. Visa eMarketplace is a secure system that uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) data encryption to help ensure that information exchanged within Visa eMarketplace is encrypted to prevent unauthorized disclosure.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About ICICI Bank Ltd: ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of $115 billion as of December 31, 2007.ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries including India. For more information, visit www.icicibank.com.

The Global Indian Account facility will be available for Indians moving to UK, US and Canada for work, study or immigration. Customers will have the opportunity to complete the documentation required for the host country account in India itself. Along with this account, they would also get a non-resident rupee account in India, which would facilitate instant money transfers between their host country account and their India account. This would help them manage their India banking requirements when away from India.

Mr. Sonjoy Chatterjee, Executive Director, responsible for Corporate & International Banking, at ICICI Bank Limited said, “We are leveraging on our international presence to offer a seamless banking service to Indians moving overseas, with access to local banking facilities from the time they enter that country”.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ICICI Bank Limited (N Y S E : I B N) is India's largest private

sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of $115 billion as of December 31, 2007. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries including India.

The CAOC is responsible for oversight of the peer review process in Maryland on behalf of the Maryland Board of Accountancy. In 2006, the Governor of Maryland signed into law the requirement that all firms that provide compilation, review, or audit/attest services must have a peer review in order to be licensed in the State of Maryland.

“It is an honor to be appointed to the CAOC,” said Dickler. “Through this position, I will have the opportunity to offer my professional expertise, which helps me to continue to give back to the profession.”

Dickler, who is based out of MBAF’s Baltimore office, heads the firm’s Automobile Dealership Audit Practice. He has over 25 years of experience in public accounting. Dickler’s areas of expertise include tax and accounting, technology consulting, litigation support and business valuation.

MBAF is ranked in the top 50 accounting firms in the nation and is the largest Florida-based CPA firm in the State. The firm has been ranked as “Best of the Best”, the list of the top 25 performing firms in the country, for 12 years. MBAF provides tax and accounting, audit, technology consulting and litigation support and business valuation services to entrepreneurs, wealthy individuals, private and public corporations and legal practitioners across a broad range of industries. For more information, please visit http://www.mbafcpa.com/.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

A firm with almost four decades tradition, MBAF is the 50th largest independent public accounting firm in the nation and the largest in the state of Florida. MBAF provides highly personalized service to a broad range of clients, from individuals to entrepreneurs, business owners, wealthy individuals and public and private entities. MBAF's professional staff of CPAs and consultants, led by a hands-on management team, offers depth of business experience, market knowledge and technical expertise, coupled with responsive client service.

Our portfolio of accounting and management consulting services offers a single source for many of the business solutions our clients need to succeed in today's competitive landscape, where old and new economies are merging. In addition to offering a wide range of accounting and management consulting services, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra also has developed an in-depth knowledge and experience in several industry niches. As a result, MBAF clients benefit from a high degree of personalized service from an advisor that understands your business needs. By investing our resources into learning the industry-specific nuances of your operations, we are able to provide value-added services to our clients.

According to Mr. D. Kannan, Executive Director, Kotak Securities Ltd., “At Kotak Securities, we understand the importance of safeguarding the investments of our customers; and that is precisely what a trusted security expert, such as Entrust will do, to boost the confidence of our customers and instill trust in our brand."

“Risk-based authentication — even via a Security Key — shouldn’t be cost prohibitive,” said Entrust Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bill Conner. “Enabling secure transactions through the online channel creates greater safety for both the organization and the customer. By offering strong authentication to its customers, Kotak proactively protects its customers and its brand online, and we applaud them for that.”

Mr. Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, Group Head of IT & Infrastructure, Kotak Mahindra Group., speaking about the implementation, said, “Kotak always has been attracted to the strong level of security that hardware Security Keys provide, and now that they are available at a cost efficient price from Entrust we can employ one of the strongest methods of authentication available.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Kotak Securities Limited is a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and is the stock broking arm of the Kotak Mahindra Group. With a market share close to 7.3%* of daily volumes, it is one of the India’s leading stock broking house. Kotak Securities processes over 300,000 secondary market trades everyday and manages a huge equity asset pool with over Rs. 3300 crore under management. Awarded the Number One “Prime Ranking” in 2004, it is one of the leading distributors of Initial Public Offers (IPO). Kotak Securities has been a distributor for some of the most successful issues in the country. It has also been the winner of many prestigious awards such as – ‘Best Performing Equity Broker in India’ by CNBC – TV 18 – Optimix Financial Advisory Awards 2008. It offers a wide range of financial products for its investors, including Stocks and Shares, IPOs, Mutual Funds and Derivatives. Kotak Securities, today, has 877 outlets in 321 cities, servicing over 4.30,000 customers.

Mr. Hemant Kanoria, Chairman and Managing Director of SREI said, “This is in keeping with the current interest scenario." He, however, asserted that the enhancement in the benchmark rate of the company is unlikely to affect the momentum of growth clearly visible from the current disbursement volumes.The company already has an Asset under Management (AUM) of over Rs 8,000 crore. Besides, its traditional areas of business such as infrastructure equipment and project financing in the areas of road, power, ports, aviation and urban infrastructure sectors, the company has also made rapid forays in the railway and mining sectors.

The company's overseas venture in Russia is also showing a healthy growth trend and is expected to clock business worth in excess of $ 120 million by the end of the current financial year.This fiscal is also extremely significant from the point of view of SREI's overall business strategy having successfully forged an alliance with BNP Paribas of France, the 1600 billion EURO global bank. Incidentally, the same benchmark rate will be applicable to the joint venture also. The joint venture is already up and running and expected to contribute to SREI's fortunes substantially in the coming years. The company's traditional business of equipment financing having shifted to the joint venture, the parent company is now fully focused on project development, project finance, project advisory and investment banking. This is in line with the company's initiative to concentrate strongly on the burgeoning infrastructure sector in the country expected to attract as much as $ 600 billion in the next five year period.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited

SREI is an Integrated Infrastructure Institution, constantly and consistently ideating to deliver innovative Infrastructure solutions to the nation for over two decades, both in urban and rural India. One of the largest private sector infrastructure organizations, SREI’s business ranges from Infrastructure Equipment Finance, Project Finance, Project Advisory and Project Development to E-governance, Investment Banking, Venture Funds, Insurance Broking and Equipment Rental through QUIPPO. SREI operates across the country with a network of 51 offices and also has its operations in Russia with 3 offices. SREI is the first Indian Infrastructure Financing institutions to be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). International Finance Corporation (IFC) Washington (World Bank Group), KfW Germany & DEG Germany (Financial Institutions owned by the Government of Germany), FMO the Netherlands (Financial Institution owned by the Government of Netherlands), BIO Belgium (Financial Institutions owned by the Government of Belgium) and FINFUND Finland (Financial Institution owned by the Government of Finland) are among the large stakeholders in the Company. BNP Paribas Lease Group, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas Bank with an asset base of EURO 1, 694 Billion has a partnership with SREI.

Kanwal Rekhi and John Dougery are based in Silicon Valley, while Samir Kumar and Parag Dhol are based in Bangalore. In addition, Inventus has several prominent Venture Advisors including Saurabh Srivastava (successful entrepreneur and early venture capitalist in India), Prof. Rajeev Motwani (Stanford University professor, and start-up advisor to the Google & Yahoo! Founders), B. V. Jagadeesh (successful serial entrepreneur), and Dr. Sridhar Mitta (former President of Wipro’s R&D).

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Bangalore, Kanwal Rekhi, Co-founder, Inventus Capital Partners, said, “Across India I see many similarities with the emergence of Indo-American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Our success in mentoring those entrepreneurs who created outstanding companies in that environment is directly relevant to the needs of Indian entrepreneurs, particularly given the strong ongoing ties with Silicon Valley. We formed Inventus to harness our unique combination of operating experience and mentoring skills to further catalyze India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

According to John Dougery, Co-founder, Inventus Capital Partners, “Kanwal and I have successfully backed entrepreneurs together for over a decade, and closely teamed with Samir and Parag we are well positioned to support Indian ventures which leverage technology to revolutionize the Indian economy and disrupt global markets.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Inventus Capital Partners:

Inventus supports ambitious entrepreneurs building the next generation of technology powered companies, particularly software products, services, embedded software, consumer internet, semiconductor and mobile services companies. The Inventus principals have successfully invested in over 100 companies through multiple venture cycles since 1993. They typically lead the first significant round of financing and play active mentoring roles on company boards. To date they’ve supported entrepreneurs in building dozens of successful public companies or highly valued acquisitions, resulting in the creation of $30 billion+ in aggregate wealth and market value for respective entrepreneur founders and shareholders. Inventus Capital Partners was formed with the support of the highest quality institutional investors and top-tier US venture firms including U.S. Venture Partners. For more information on Inventus Capital Partners, please visit: http://www.inventuscap.com

For editorial queries only contact Manpreet/Sambhu @ 9845901316/ 9731154310; e-mail: manpreet@prhub.com/sambhu@prhub.com

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of $121 billion as of March 31, 2008. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries, including India.

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release, which contain words or phrases such as 'will', 'would', etc., and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute 'forward-looking statements'. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to our ability to obtain statutory and regulatory approvals and to successfully implement our strategy, future levels of non-performing loans, our growth and expansion in business, the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses, technological implementation and changes, the actual growth in demand for banking products and services, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports filed by us with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. ICICI Bank undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof

Rakesh Kathotia, Chairman, Subhkam Ventures, said, “Shailendra Mundra’s experience in the areas of strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and marketing shall further add to Subhkam Ventures’ industry domain expertise.”

Subhkam Ventures is a boutique private equity firm, which invests in Private Equity and PIPEs. The company has been building up its portfolio and scale over the years and with a portfolio covering various sectors is one of the prominent players in the private equity space. The company has built up a strong team of professionals and the induction of Shailendra Mundra as Joint Managing Director will further strengthen its team.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

This course group is a thorough compendium of 36 courses organized into 12 course libraries, which are:

1. BBM Deposits – 4 courses
2. BBM Advances – 7 courses
3. BBM Marketing – 3 courses
4. BBM Foreign Exchange Operations – 3 courses
5. BBM Payment & Settlement System – 2 courses
6. BBM Trade Finance – 2 courses
7. BMM Bookkeeping & Accounting – 3 courses
8. BBM HRM & CSR – 2 courses
9. BBM Retail Banking – 3 courses
10. BBM Risk Management – 3 courses
11. BBM Technology & Security – 2 courses
12. BBM Ancillary Services – 2 courses

These e-learning courses on Bank Branch Management acts as a practical guide, which aids understanding of a Bank Branch. This is a complete package of learning solution that covers courses on all aspects like Development, Organization, Supervision, Execution and Support Strategies of a typical Bank Branch.

The courses are designed in a dynamic and highly interactive format interspersed with simulations and case studies. Exercises and Quizzes combine to make your learning