Bear Stearns- American Financial Services company is entering India and plans to be a full-fledged financial services company in India covering institutional equities, fixed income, investment banking, asset management etc. The company plans to acquire Ford Automotive Finance company from its parent Ford Credit International.

State Bank of India (SBI),will shortly foray into the general insurance space. The general insurance company will be a tie-up with a foreign partner.SBI has so far shortlisted 3-4 overseas partners and a final decision will be made anytime during the year.

With rising job cuts, outsourcing and higher taxes in the western world many expats and foreigners are keen to work in Asia and India offers tremondous opportunity. There is a severe shrotage of senior and middle level professioanls and corporates in India are keen to acquire talent from overseas.Though India is yet to emerge as a hot destination due to stringent work permits and work law.

Mumbai has been the hub of most of the developments in Indian financial system. In recognition of this, as announced in Budget 2005-06, Government appointed a High Powered Expert Committee on Mumbai as an International Financial Centre.The Committee included senior representatives of Government and heads of several financial and market institutions. The Committee submitted its report to Government recently....more details at http://www.finmin.nic.in/mifc.html

The need to reward banks for setting up branches in India's rural areas with more liberal permission has been mooted by the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.How to expand in these seemingly unprofitable areas in todays highly competitive banking scnerio is the moot point.Given the success of the telecommunication industry's penetration in India's rural areas , this may well serve as a model that could be applied for achieving grassroot banking

With India emerging as a big player in cross border acquisitions, the move to harmonise  India's auditing standards with the global standards is on. ICAI -( The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ) is considering a proposal of rotating audit firms for efficiency, the international practice is to rotate the professional within the audit firms after seven years.

CFA Institute to wind up operations in India ?- The All India Council of Technical Education has asked the US-based CFA Institute to stop operations in India. The Institute has informed members that it cannot guarantee that the exams will be held as per schedule in India.The US based CFA institute has been offering the CFA degree globally and it is well recognised the world over. The AICTE decison to ban CFA from oprerating in India though legaly valid appears to be harsh.The Institute maintains that the CFA course is neither a technical programme nor a diploma, and therefore not subject to the AICTE regulations, and will continue to comply with all regulatory decision.This is offcourse for the courts to decide.The controversy is the result ofa trade mark dispute between US based CFA Institute and the Hyderabad based ICFIA over the use of "CFA" in its name and the diploma offered.Whatever be the outcome, AICTE should allow the students already enrolled to take part in the exam and should not seek to prevent the US based Institute from operating in India. A better approach would be to bring it under its regulatory framework.

HDFC Chubb General insurance will now be wholly owned subsidiary of HDFC. This is the first instance of parting of ways in the Indian insurance industry due to unmatched expectations on how the business will run. India's explosive growth in the insurance market has attracted sveral companies and quite a few foreign insurers including a few Japanese insurance companies may set shop here.

ABN Amro and Barclays have agreed to merge- which might be the biggest deal in the financial services sector. This move might mean off shoring key operations to low cost locations such as India. More such mergers in the banking and financial sector would mean more jobs moving to India which is already known for its fast growth , educated & skilled manpower and low cost IT enabled low cost back end operations. There could be a surge of jobs in the financial services sector in India

The UTI Bank Ltd, has opened a full service bank in Hong Kong and now have a presence in the fast growing markets of east and far-east including China and Singapore offering initially corporate finance, trade finance and retail banking services. UTI Bank was the first of the new private banks to have begun operations in 1994, after the Government of India allowed new private banks to be established.

DSP Merrill Lynch -which started as a joint venture between Merrill Lynch and DSP (now Merrill lynch owns 90%) may get into mortgage business in India. Merrill Lynch provides investment banking & investment and wealth management services globally . India is witnessing very fast growth in the retail lending segment thus attracting global companies