The foreign rulers in India did not take much interest in the industrial development of the country. They were interested to take raw materials to England and bring back finished goods to India. The government did not show any interest for securing up institutions needed for industrial financing. The recommendation for setting up industrial financing institutions was made in 1931 by Central Banking Enquiry Committee but no concrete steps were taken. In 1949, Reserve Bank had undertaken a detailed study to find out the need for specialized institutions. It was in 1948 that the first development bank i.e. Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) was established. IFCI was assigned the role of a gap-filler which implied that it was not expected to compete with the existing channels of industrial finance. It was expected to provide medium and long-term credit to industrial concerns only when they could not raise sufficient finances Continue reading
Financial Institutions
The Insurance Regulatory And Development Authority (IRDA)
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is regulatory and development authority under Government of India in order to protect the interests of the policyholders and to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry. It is basically a ten members’ team comprising of a Chairman, five full time members and four part-time members, all appointed by Government of India. This organization came into being in 1999 after the bill of IRDA was passed in the Indian parliament. The creation of IRDA has brought revolutionary changes in the Insurance sector. In the last 10 years of its establishment the insurance sector has seen tremendous growth. When IRDA came into being; the only players in the insurance industry were Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), however in last decade 23 new players have emerged in the field of insurance. The IRDA also successfully Continue reading
Principal Functions of Investment Banks
Global investment banks typically have several business units, each looking after one of the functions of investment banks. For example, Corporate Finance, concerned with advising on the finances of corporations, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; Research, concerned with investigating, valuing, and making recommendations to clients – both individual investors and larger entities such as hedge funds and mutual funds regarding shares and corporate and government bonds; and Sales and Trading, concerned with buying and selling shares both on behalf of the bank’s clients and also for the bank itself. For Investment banks management of the bank’s own capital, or Proprietary Trading, is often one of the biggest sources of profit. For example, the banks may arbitrage stock on a large scale if they see a suitable profit opportunity or they may structure their books so that they profit from a fall in bond price or yields. In short the principal Continue reading
Inter-Connected Stock Exchange (ISE)
The formation of NSE changed the way in which the stock exchanges were functioning. Modern infrastructure, technology, transparency and corporate governance are now becoming the features in the corporate the world. It also forced BSE to adopt the new technology and with this, NSE and BSE crossed boundaries and started functioning, operating throughout India. This affected the functioning of small and regional exchanges. This led to the birth of the Inter-connected Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (ISE). Federation of Indian stock exchanges, in a meeting held in 1996, constituted a steering committee to evolve an interconnected market system. In 1997, the market governing body of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) granted approval to the proposal of the ISE to set up a national level stock exchange promoted by 14 regional stock exchanges. ISE was launched with an objective of converting small, fragmented and illiquid markets into Continue reading
Depositary Receipts – Definition, History and Types
A Depositary Receipt (DR) is a type of negotiable (transferable) financial security traded on a local stock exchange but represents a security, usually in the form of equity, issued by a foreign, publicly-listed company. The Depositary Receipt, which is a physical certificate, allows investors to hold shares in equity of other countries. One of the most common types of Depository Receipts is the American depository receipt (ADR), which has been offering companies, investors and traders global investment opportunities since the 1920s. Since then, Depository Receipts have spread to other parts of the globe in the form of global depository receipts (GDRs). The other most common type of Depository Receipts are European DRs and International DRs. ADRs are typically traded on a US national stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the American Stock Exchange, while GDRs are commonly listed on European stock exchanges such as the Continue reading
Functions of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)
Life insurance business in India was being transacted by private companies until 1956. As a result of the long felt need and in the interest of insuring public, the life insurance business was nationalized in 1956. The nationalization resulted in the establishment of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) by an act of the Parliament. The Corporation was formed and began to function on September 1, 1956 by taking over 170 companies and 75 provident societies. The entire initial capital of Rs.5 crore was contributed by the government of India. The objective of nationalization was described by the then finance minister, C. D. Deshmukh as “to see that the gospel of insurance is spread as far and wide as possible so that we reach beyond the more advanced urban areas well into the hither to neglected rural areas.” The Corporation is a body corporate having perpetual succession with a common Continue reading