Understanding Financial Services: Key Insights for U.S. Readers

If you’ve ever Googled “financial services,” you’ve probably found yourself swimming in a sea of confusing terms, jargon, and acronyms. But let’s make this simple: financial services are essentially products and services designed to help you manage your money. Whether it’s banking, insurance, investments, or planning for retirement, these services are like your financial toolkit—helping you save, invest, protect, … Read more

Bank Accounts for Everyone

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It is never too early to start taking control of your financesand learning about how to manage money from an early age can do noharm. One of the best ways of teaching youngsters about how to takecare of finances is by opening their very own bank account.Anyone under the age of sixteen can open their … Read more

HSBC profit up 121%

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HSBC Holdings brought cheer to global markets reporting itssecond best-ever half yearly results, with profits before taxjumping 121% to $11.1 billion compared to the first half of 2009.Bad loans, or loan impairment charges, droppedby 46% to $7.5 billion, signalling that the worst of the bankingcrisis may be over for HSBC.HSBCmade profits in every market except … Read more

HadleyRichards – Moody’s Cuts Spain’s Rating.

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HadleyRichards saw that Spain’s sovereign credit ratingwas cut by Moody’s Investors Service, the third time it hasdone so since June of last year, by two notches. They said that thedebt levels of the corporate and banking sectors have left thecountry exposed to funding stress. Fitch Ratings had cutSpain’s rating on October 7 and Standard & … Read more

SBI, ICICI Bank raise lending rates by 50 bps

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Home loanrates are set to rise for existing borrowers of State Bank ofIndia (SBI) and ICICI Bank, with both lenders increasing theirprime lending rates (PLRs) by 50 basis points. SBI, besides raisinglending rates, has also increased returns on term deposits and hasintroduced a floating rate deposit scheme to attract investors in arising rate regime.The cascading … Read more

Gears to judge before Getting a Car Loan

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Buying car is certainly a great feeling for many who own it forthe first time. But it can be a daunting task for a layman in theindustry, especially when you opt for a car loan in India. However,there are several things you need to consider before deciding ongetting a car loan. Because, proper planning is … Read more

Indian banks deposit growth covering, may impact liquidity: HDFC

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sheath growth in Indian banks’ deposits despite recent hike ininterest rates could further impact liquidity, a top banker saidhere on Friday.”Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) target for deposit growth thisyear is 18 per cent, but actually it is lagging behind at 14 percent or so,” executive director of HDFCBank Paresh Suthankar who was here for … Read more

A Brief History of Banking

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Although the general perception may be that organised banking isa relatively new phenomenon that has only developed over the lastfew centuries, the reality is that has been in thriving in one formor another for almost 3,750 years.It was during the heyday of the Babylonian Empire from 1728 – 1686BC that the Code of Hammurabi, named … Read more

“Okuma Group”- So Much For The V-Shaped Recovery…

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“Okuma Group” assertions that the notion of aV-shaped economic recovery was bunkum have been proven correct aswave after wave of disappointing economic data has left investorswith little doubt that the world’s developed economies areflirting with the probability of a double-dip recession.Trillionsof dollars of stimulus, bailouts and liquidity injections havefailed to address the fundamental issues which … Read more

Sanwa Holdings: Gold Selloff – No Cause For Concern.

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“Sanwa Holdings” have told clients that the recentfall in the price of gold should not be a cause for concern.The last two weeks have seen the price of gold under considerablepressure as fears over both the European debt crisis and theslowing global economy stoke investor fear and a flight toso-called “quality” represented by the US … Read more