SBI pays Rs 22,152 crore for RIB redemption

The State Bank of India has paid out Rs 22,151.83 crore (Rs 221.52 billion) to the Reserve Bank of India for buying dollars to settle the $5.185 billion Resurgent India Bonds redeemed on Wednesday.

The rupee outgo from the SBI is based on the average rate of RIB proceeds sold by the bank to the RBI.

"We are hoping to retain 30-35 per cent of the redeemed amount through rollovers," SBI chairman AK Purwar told Business Standard, adding that meticulous planning and proper arrangements had been made in the run-up to the RIB redemption.

Senior SBI officials said a clear picture on the extent of RIB redemptions and rollovers would emerge in 10 days.

"The redemption process was very smooth, as evidenced by the absence of any volatility in the money, foreign exchange and securities markets," an RBI press release said.

The RBI has sold $5.185 billion to the SBI to meet its obligations to bond holders towards the principal and accumulated interest.

The RIBs were floated on August 5, 1998, by the SBI in three currencies -- dollars, pound sterling and the deutsche mark. The RIBs mopped up $4.2 billion.

Of the total sale of $ 5.185 billion, the RBI has utilised its forward foreign currency receivables of $2.794 billion and the remaining $2.391 billion was from the RBI's foreign exchange reserves, the central bank said.

The exchange loss has been fully met from the balance available in the Maintenance of Value account, subject to an apportionment between the Centre and the SBI in the agreed ratio.

Purwar said the SBI was likely to review the interest rates on deposits offered by its offshore banking units in certain maturity brackets.

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are also in the fray to attract the RIB redemption proceeds.

ICICI Bank said its offshore banking unit in Mumbai would offer foreign currency deposit schemes to NRIs. The indicative rate of return ranges from 1.62 per cent per annum for one year, 2.27 per cent for two years, 3.01 per cent for three years, 3.35 per cent for four years, 4.02 per cent for five years and 4.43 per cent for six years.

Bank of Baroda has launched a new deposit scheme, Baroda Anivasi Yojana, where interest rate range from 25 basis points to 60 basis points over the respective Libor rates for the period one to three years, depending on the amount and the tenure of the deposit.