Bizbits

HongKong Bank

MUMBAI 8212; HongKong Bank on Tuesday opened a new branch at Peddar Road. Dyfrig John, chief executive officer, India, and Zarir J Cama, deputy chief executive officer, India, were present on the occasion along with other senior executives of the bank. quot;The branch will be equipped with a 24-hour ATM facility and the entire range of personal banking products including asset vantage which is HongKong Bank8217;s priority banking service,quot; a bank release stated.

SBI chairman

MUMBAI 8212; The chairman of State Bank of India SBI, M S Verma, today advised the upcoming managers to continuouslyre-adjust and reorient the focus by benchmarking and stretch the leverage to face global challenges. Verma was inaugurating a seminar organised by the FICCI on integrated learning in management. He said people should also think about the unlearning process. quot;You have to unlearn to create space for learning,quot; he said pointing out that is is necessary for the managers to learn new rules of the game which are played in the globally competitive environment.

Godrej HI Care

MUMBAI 8212; Godrej HI Care, the 49:51 joint venture between Godrej Soaps and Sara Lee of US, has entered into an agreement with Hoechst Schering AgrEvo for marketing and distributing Hexit, an insect repellent spray. Hexit, which would continue to be manufactured by Hoechst, has a marketshare of around 8.5 per cent.

Ficci note to RBI

MUMBAI 8212; The Ficci has submitted a memorandum to the RBI committee on credit to small-scale industries, stating that the guidelines based on the Nayak Committee recommendations have not beenadhered to by many banks. quot;Thus the small-scale industrial sector does not get the required working capital from the banking system,quot; a Ficci release said.

RBI shift

MUMBAI 8212; The RBI, on Monday, said the internal accounting function of the industrial and export credit department has been shifted to another department for the purpose of housekeeping. There are many non-accounting units in the RBI whose internal accounts function is being attended to.

Bank privatisation

MUMBAI 8212; All India Bank Employees8217; Association has opposed privatisation of banks. quot;Any attempt towards privatisation of banks shall be opposed unitedly by all the nine unions,quot; general secretary of All India Bank Employees8217; Association Tarakeswar Chakraborthy said in Delhi on Monday.

WB floats loan

CALCUTTA 8212; The West Bengal government on Tuesday floated a Rs 200-crore loan in the market to meet the capital expenditure for development schemes included in the state plan, according to an official release. Theloan is to be repaid on April 20, 2008, with an interest of 12.15 per cent per annum payable half-yearly.

Markets closed

MUMBAI 8212; The premier stock exchanges in the city 8212; BSE, NSE and The Over The Counter Exchange of India OTCEI 8212; foreign exchange market and cotton exchange were officially closed on Tuesday on account of quot;Ambedkar Jayantiquot;.