Investment Center Performance Evaluation

Investment centers are decentralized divisions or sub-units for which   the manager has maximum discretion in determining not only short-term operating decision on product mix, pricing and production methods, but also level and type of investment. An investment center extends the profit center concept in that the measured profit is related to the center investment. It may be described as a special form of profit center since a profitability measure is being developed for the center. The concept relating profits to assets employed has an intuitive appeal for it for indicates whether the return for the capital invested in the division and it is important that an evaluation be made the overall company are earning on in elaborate systems for authorizing capital investment center performance can be the aggregation of past and present capital projects each project individually. Such a measurement also provides an incentive for division managers to monitor Continue reading

Types of Credit Derivatives

In finance, a credit derivative is a securitized derivative whose value is derived from the credit risk on an underlying bond, loan or any other financial asset. In this way, the credit risk is on an entity other than the counter-parties to the transaction itself. This entity is known as the reference entity and may be a corporate, a sovereign or any other form of legal entity which has incurred debt. Credit derivatives are bilateral contracts between a buyer and seller under which the seller sells protection against the credit risk of the reference entity. Similar to placing a bet at the racetrack, where the person placing the bet does not own the horse or the track or have anything else to do with the race, the person buying the credit derivative doesn’t necessarily own the bond (the reference entity) that is the object of the wager. He or she Continue reading

SWOT analysis of Universal Banking in India

The solution of Universal Banking was having many factors to deal with which further categorized under Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT); Strengths: Economies Of Scale: The main advantage of Universal Banking is that it results in greater economic efficiency in the form of lower cost, higher output and better products. Various Reserve Banks Committees and reports in favor of Universal Banking, is that it enables banks to exploit economies of scale and scope. It means a bank can reduce average costs and thereby improve spreads if it expands its scale of operations and diversifying activities. Profitable Diversions: By diversifying the activities, the bank can use its existing expertise in one type of financial service in providing other types. So, it entails less cost in performing all the functions by one entity instead of separate bodies. Resource Utilization: A bank possesses the information on the risk characteristics of the clients, Continue reading

Rolling Settlement System

Rolling Settlement process , also known as Compulsory Rolling Settlement (CRS) where trades on a stock exchange were to be accounted for and settled on T i.e. trade day plus “X” trading days, where “X” could be 1,2,3,4 or 5 days. Thus, in essence, it means that if say a T+n, where n is the number of days system of rolling settlement was to be followed, trades accounted for on the T i.e. trade day were to be settled on the nth working day minus the T day. The Account period of settling transactions was followed in India for a long time. It worked on the idea that transactions for an entire week were to be settled on a pre-specified date the very next week. However, this process was considered too technical and cumbersome. This settlement risk is lowered in  Rolling Settlement as the settlement of debts accounting to different Continue reading

Different Modes of Acceptance of Deposits by Commercial Banks

The most important activity of a commercial bank is to mobilize deposits from the public. People who have surplus income and savings find it convenient to  deposit the amounts with banks. Depending upon the nature of deposits, funds deposited with bank also earn interest. Thus, deposits with the bank grow along with the interest earned. If the rate of interest is higher, public are motivated to deposit more funds with the bank. There is also safety of funds deposited with the bank.  The following types of deposits are usually received by banks: Current  Deposit:  Also called ‘demand deposit’, current deposit can be withdrawn by the depositor at any time by cheques. Businessmen generally open current accounts with banks. Current accounts do not carry any interest as the amount deposited in these accounts is repayable on demand without any restriction.  The Reserve bank of India prohibits payment of interest on current Continue reading

The Concept of Debt Recovery Management

Banks were never so serious in their efforts to ensure timely recovery and consequent reduction of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) as they are today. It is important to remember that recovery management, be of fresh loans or old loans, is central to NPA management. This management process needs to start at the loan initiating stage itself. Effective management of recovery and Non-Performing Assets comprise two pronged strategy. First relates to arresting of the defaults and creation of NPA thereof and the second is to handling of loan delinquencies. The tenets of financial sector reforms were revolutionary which created a sense of urgency in the minds of staff of bank and gave them a message that either they perform or perish.   The prudential norm has forced the bank to look into the asset quality. A  debt from a loan, credit line or accounts receivable  that is recovered either in whole or Continue reading