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Non-Tech : ICICI Ltd - (Nyse: IC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (386)	3/15/2000 3:53:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 494

BoB to invest 250 cr ($55 mil) in e-busniess bankofbaroda.com New Delhi, March 15 (Agencies) BANK OF Baroda (BoB) has decided to invest Rs 250 crore under the "e-millennium" project with focus on e-commerce and Internet banking. "We have decided to focus on e-banking through improved technology and use of internet to offer better services to our customers and for it the bank plans to invest Rs 250 crore in the next 18 months," Bank of Baroda executive director P S Shenoy said here today. The bank has appointed Arthur Andersen for devising various risk management tools and is examining different options for taking a plunge into e-banking. "We are examining how to go about in the Internet banking. We may either float a fully-owned subsidiary or have a joint venture," said Shenoy who is also the officiating chairman of the bank. "Net banking would be able to provide the payment gateway for our customers accounts and would help in improvement of the bank's services," he said. Because of ticklish banking laws, the bank cannot hold over 30 per cent equity of any other company. This means in the Net joint venture, it cannot have over 30 per cent of the holding. "We may have three partners," Shenoy said, he however added that it was too early to give the details on internet banking as it would be the second stage of the e-millennium project. "Objective of the e-millennium project is to have connectivity of the bank branches across the country and its overseas branches," he added. BoB currently has overseas branches in Europe, the United States, Africa, Middle-East and South-East Asia. "With the new project, the bank will be able to focus and offer better service to its non-resident customers who have deposit base of over Rs 10,000 crore ($2.1 bil)," Shenoy said. In the first stage of the e-millennium project, Shenoy said, 75 per cent of the bank's business will be on-line with connectivity of over 550 branches by the end of December this year. The bank is also aggressively working on improving the skill of its 46,000 workforce in the new technology atmosphere. The bank?s acting chief said that the banks were looking towards the bank rate of Reserve Bank of India before taking position about the interest rates. Shenoy, however, agreed that the market is driving the interest rates down as more and more banks are giving credit to the corporates through commercial paper at a rate much lower than the PLR. -Hindustan Times