Better deal for NRIs at home as banks raise deposit rates

Earlier this month, State Bank of India, Indian Bank and Federal Bank increased rates on NRI deposits for various tenures. “Parking money in NRI deposits depends on a lot of factors, including where you live and where you expect to utilise these funds. Given that interest rates in western Europe and the US are at historically low levels, deposits in India can give a higher return than leaving money in a bank in Europe or the US. However, one needs to be aware that by leaving money in rupees, one could be exposing oneself to adverse currency movements if the foreign exchange rates fluctuate and the NRI seeks to take the money out,” said Kartik Verma of iTrust Financial Advisors.

“For most part of 2010, inflows into NRI deposits were 64 per cent higher at $3.474 billion compared with $2.114 billion that came in the same period a year ago. The trend is expected to continue,” said Adhil Shetty, chief executive officer of BankBazaar.

Better deal for NRIs at home as banks raise deposit rates

In an NRE account, funds standing to the credit and the interest earned thereon are remittable outside India in free foreign exchange, without RBI’s permission. The interest income is not subject to Indian income tax. Credits to the account should be in the form of remittance in foreign exchange from outside India, as well as other funds, which are eligible to be remitted outside India in free foreign exchange.

Funds from local sources are not eligible to be credited to these accounts, unless they are otherwise remittable outside India, in terms with existing Exchange Control Regulations.

An FCNR account can be opened in four foreign currencies — pound sterling, US dollar, Japanese yen and euro. For the purpose of opening an account, remittance in foreign exchange, in the same currency, should be received in India. The account can be opened only for fixed deposits with a minimum maturity of one year and a maximum maturity of three years.

History of stock exchange

The next few decades saw one of history's greatest financial bubbles. At the center of it were the South Sea Company, set up in 1711 to conduct English trade with South America, and the Mississippi Company, focused on commerce with France's Louisiana colony and touted by transplanted Scottish financier John Law, who was acting in effect as France's central banker. Investors snapped up shares in both, and whatever else was available. In 1720, at the height of the mania, there was even an offering of "a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is."
By the end of that same year, share prices were collapsing, as it became clear that expectations of imminent wealth from the Americas were overblown. In London, Parliament passed the Bubble Act, which stated that only royally chartered companies could issue public shares. In Paris, Law was stripped of office and fled the country. Stock trading would be more limited and subdued in subsequent decades. Yet the market survived, and by the 1790s shares were being traded in the young United States.

History of stock exchange

The same year in which de la Vega published also saw an event that would help spread financial techniques and talent from Amsterdam to London. This was the "glorious revolution," in which Dutch-born William of Orange ascended to England's throne. William sought to modernize England's finances to pay for its wars, and thus the kingdom's first government bonds were issued in 1693 and the Bank of England was set up the following year. Soon thereafter, English joint-stock companies began going public.

NASDAQ was the first electronic stock exchange.

London's first stockbrokers, however, were barred from the old commercial center known as the Royal Exchange, reportedly because of their rude manners. Instead, the new trade was conducted from coffee houses along Exchange Alley. By 1698, a broker named John Castaing, operating out of Jonathan's Coffee House, was posting regular lists of stock and commodity prices. Those lists mark the beginning of the London Stock Exchange

History of stock exchange

The Dutch West India Company was formed in 1621, bringing a new issuer to the burgeoning securities market. Amsterdam's growth as a financial center survived the tulip mania of the 1630s, in which contracts for the delivery of flower bulbs soared wildly and then crashed. New techniques and instruments proliferated for securities as well as commodities, including early forms of options trading and margin trading.
Joseph de la Vega, also known as Joseph Penso de la Vega and by other variations of his name, was an Amsterdam trader from a Spanish Jewish family and a prolific writer as well as a successful businessman in 17th-century Amsterdam. His 1688 book Confusion of Confusions explained the workings of the city's stock market. It was the earliest book about stock trading, taking the form of a dialogue between a merchant, a shareholder and a philosopher, the book described a market that was sophisticated but also prone to excesses, and de la Vega offered advice to his readers on such topics as the unpredictability of market shifts and the importance of patience in investment

History of stock exchange

The Dutch East India Company, formed to build up the spice trade, operated as a colonial ruler in what's now Indonesia and beyond, a purview that included conducting military operations against recalcitrant natives and competing colonial powers. Control of the company was held tightly by its directors, with ordinary shareholders not having much influence on management or even access to the company's accounting statements.
However, shareholders were rewarded well for their investment. The company paid an average dividend of over 16 percent per year from 1602 to 1650. Financial innovation in Amsterdam took many forms. In 1609, investors led by one Isaac Le Maire formed history's first bear syndicate, but their coordinated trading had only a modest impact in driving down share prices, which tended to be robust throughout the 17th century. By the 1620s, the company was expanding its securities issuance with the first use of corporate bonds.

History of stock exchange

The forefront of commercial innovation eventually shifted from Italy to northern Europe. The Hanseatic League, an alliance of mercantile towns such as Bruges and Antwerp, operated counting houses to expedite trade. The term "bourse," which would become synonymous with "stock market," arose in Bruges, either from a sign outside a trading center showing one or a few purses (bursa is Latin for bag) or because merchants gathered at the house of a man named Van der Burse; nobody's quite sure.
By the late 1500s, British merchants were experimenting with joint-stock companies intended to operate on an ongoing basis; one such was the Muscovy Company, which sought to wrest trade with Russia away from Hanseatic dominance. The next big step was in Amsterdam. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was formed as a joint-stock company with shares that were readily tradable. The stock market had begun.