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ICICI Bank extends reach

        ICICI Bank has announced that the savings bank account holders can now avail of free and unlimited access at over 18,000 ATMs. Customers cna withdraw cash and check their balance at non-ICICI Bank ATMs across India at no charge. To avail of the free usage facility, the customer has to maintain a quarterly average balance of Rs 10,000. While the customer will be charged at the time of transaction, all charges will be reversed in the subsequent quarter. A host of value-added services like mobile banking, internet banking, phone banking, anywhere banking and lots more are offered to the savings account customers.

        Tata Motor Corporation has recorded the highest ever month-on-month consolidated vehicle sales in Japan. This excludes the minim vehicle category. Further, domestic market share in the passenger car segment excluding mini vehicles touched highest ever sales of 49.4 per cent in November this year. Toyota's market share is above 42 per cent for the sixth successive year, touching 45.68 per cent between January and November this year. The company had earlier realised its highest-ever consolidated sales of 44.4 per cent in 2004. The overall passenger car market in Japan has come down by 6.5 per cent. However, the demand for Toyota brand vehicles has come down only by 2.2 per cent. Interestingly, the company has recorded a 50 per cent increase in regional sales this year.

        The vessel MV Imperial Spirit discharging Australian wheat for State Trading Corporation through Chennai Port achieved a record handling of 19,954 MT of wheat in a single day. This feat was achieved on 21 December, 2006 and Hari & Co are the Stevedores of the vessel. It may be noted that wheat import through Chennai Port is on the rise and the port is gearing itself to handle more and more clean cargo like food grain. In the last nine months, the total quantity of 4,26,607 MT wheat was handled through Chennai Port for FCI.

        The banks have been asked to speed up loans under Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY). Chairing the review meet, Chennai District Collector R Jaya told the bankers to hasten the scrutiny and timely clearance besides issuing special sanctions to match the benchmark fixed at the State Level Bankers Committee meeting. The Collector advised the banks to make optimum use of the recovery team of DIC and insisted that the bankers have post-disbursement monitoring on a continual basis instead of waiting till the loan account becomes an NPA and then proceed for intensive recovery. She also told the bankers that the district is mapping the profile of PMRY beneficiaries including their loan recovery patterns.