There is nothing official about it, but the so-called memorandum of understanding that the nation’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had signed with Gujarat’s Adani Group in November 2014 to build a $7.8 billion coal mine in Australia has died a natural death. Neither the lender nor the borrower is keen to follow up the agreement that raked up a huge controversy after it was announced in Brisbane where Adani Group boss Gautam Adani was accompanying a business delegation for the Group of 20 summit, attended by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Opposition parties dubbed this as an instance of the crony capitalism that has been plaguing India’s Rs.90 trillion banking industry. Many suspected that the decision was influenced by Modi, who till May 2014 was Gujarat’s chief minister.

After reducing its base rate by 15 basis points (bps), India’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has cut the interest rate for new home loans by another 10 bps, to 9.9 per cent.

So, in effect, the interest rate for new home loans will be reduced by 25 bps. For the existing ones, 15 bps is the reduction.

Three leading banks of the country cut their lending rates on Tuesday, hours after Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan dismissed the argument of banks that their marginal cost of funds had not fallen despite two rate cuts by the central bank in the last four months as “nonsense”.

On a day when the RBI left its key policy rates unchanged and banks appeared reluctant to lower rates saying that their cost of funds had not fallen, it was some tough talking by Rajan which seemed to goad banks into action.

State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday said it received board approval to divest up to 10 per cent of its stake in SBI Life Insurance.

SBI Life is a 74-26 joint venture between SBI and BNP Cardif, with the former holding 74 per cent and 26 per cent by the foreign partner.

NEW DELHI: State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday said it plans to divest up to 10% stake in its life insurance arm SBI Life.

"The executive committee of the central board has today authorised divestment of SBI's stake in SBI Life Insurance by up to 10%," SBI said in a statement.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Country's largest lender State Bank of India has received all necessary approvals to buy residential properties of cash-starved national carrier Air India, in south Mumbai for Rs 90 crore.

"SBI is now waiting for the airline to complete its side of approvals," sources close to development said. SBI plans to allocate these flats to its top executives of the rank of deputy managing directors and general managers.

Markets recovered from day's lows but continued to remain volatile helped by a rebound in bank and information technology shares even as select index heavyweights capped upside gains.

At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 6 points at 27,463 and the 50-share Nifty was down 8 points at 8,334.

State Bank of India (SBI) told the stock exchanges on Thursday that it would be reducing stake in its general insurance venture from the present 76 per cent to 51 per cent.

There would be a corresponding rise in stake of Insurance Australia Group from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. A valuer would be appointed to facilitate price discovery.

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) will dilute its stake in its general insurance joint venture—SBI General Insurance—to 51% from 76% in favour of its existing partner Insurance Australia Group (IAG), the lender said in a notice to exchanges on Thursday.

The move comes after Parliament voted on 12 March to allow foreign investors to raise their stakes in domestic insurance joint ventures to 49% from the earlier permitted limit of 26%.

Shares of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks were trading lower for the fifth straight trading session on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) with the CNX PSU Bank index hitting five-month low today.

At 1449 hours, CNX PSU Bank index, the largest loser among sectoral indices, was down 1.6% at 3,444 points compared with 0.15% fall in the CNX Nifty and a marginal 0.10% rise in Bank Nifty.

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