Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), a market leader in the Utility Vehicle segment, has signed a MoU with the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) for financing of vehicles.

Under the arrangement, customers can avail of a loan up to 85% of the on road price of the vehicle, with tenure of up to 7 years. In addition, they can also avail low interest rates amounting to 12% for passenger vehicles and 11.75% for commercial vehicles.  

M&M’s Automotive Sector makes a wide range of vehicles including MUVs, LCVs and three wheelers.

Royal Sundaram Online, one of the leading general insurance company, has entered into a tie-up with American Express Payment Gateway.

Under the arrangement, all existing and potential customers of Royal Sundaram, who have an American Express card can now log on to company's website and buy or renew their policies online through the American Express Online Payment Gateway.

The latest initiative is in addition to the existing Citibank Payment Gateway tie up, which allows online transactions by Visa or Master cards.

According to a report released by rating agency Crisil, a nearly three-fold increase in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banks is projected by the year 2011 - the figures are likely to go up from the last year's 2.3 percent of advances to 5 per cent of advances by 2011.

Speaking in absolute terms, the gross NPAs would from last year level of Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 1.9 lakh crore.

The report says increased gross NPAs would result from increasing defaults in payments by companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because of their puny risk profile and severe strain on operating margins.

Honda Siel Cars India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Punjab National Bank (PNB), for financing their cars across India.

Under the arrangement, the lender will offer car loan up to 90% of "on road cost", for tenure ranging up to 7 years at very competitive rates. The facility will be available at all the branches of Punjab National Bank and 103 facilities of Honda Siel Cars India.

SBI Funds, a leading fund house of the country, has finally launched ‘SBI Gold Exchange Traded Scheme (SBI GETS) in the Indian market.

The investment objective of the fund is to seek and provide returns that closely correspond to returns provided by price of gold through investment in physical Gold.

According to official release, the scheme will invest 90%-100% in gold and gold bullion with medium to high risk profile and 0-10% in debt and money market instruments, with low risk profile.

According to anticipations of the investment banking firm Barclays Capital, it is likely that the impending annual credit policy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may result in the slashing of the key rates by up to 50 basis points. An almost similar opinion has been expressed by the HDFC Bank, which, however, said that it projects a 25-basis-points cut in RBI's policy rates.