BENCHMARK LENDING INFORMATION

2010-09-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

With Somasroy ChakrabortyMUMBAI, August 17 (TickerNews Service): Mysore State Bank Tuesday said it has raised its main lending rate by 50 basis points, effective Wednesday.bank's prime lending rate is currently 12.25%, according to its Web site.Subsidiary India's largest lender State Bank of India has kept the minimum lending rate or base rate of 7.75%, which this time had increased by 50 percent and finally to re-stabilize.

2010-09-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

Proposed Base Rate will include all elements of those costs can be clearly identified and common across borrowers. Constituents from ground level will include (i) the level of retail deposit interest card (deposits below Rs 15 lakh.) With the maturity of one year (adjusted for deposit CASA), (ii) negative adjustments to bring in connection with the CRR and SLR, ( iii) unallocatable overhead costs for banks which will consist of a set of minimum elements of overhead costs, and (iv) return on average net

2010-09-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

For a long time, everything has changed and is very stable until now. This question has been debated. BPLR vary from bank to bank. In addition, the variation is quite wide, spanning more than 4% at times. Therefore, much debate has been going on for several years to replace the same with the new benchmark.Working Group established in the Price Benchmark Lending Rate (BPLR) in the report submitted in October 2009, also feels that "BPLR has tended out of sync with market conditions and not simply respond to changes in monetary policy. In addition, the tendency of banks to lend at rates sub-BPLR large scale raises concerns transparency ... .. On account of competitive pressures, the bank loans at a level that does not make sense commercially "Therefore, the Group is of the view that the lending rates that remain prime reference (BPLR) system has fell short of expectations in its original intention to increase transparency in lending rates charged by banks and need to be changed.

2010-09-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

While starting the steps to replace the existing system BPLR, RBI feels that the existing credit system rate had lost its relevance and effectively inhibit the transmission of monetary policy signals. For example, the RBI reduced the loan interest rate by 425 basis points in the past year, but the banks to reduce their BPLR by about 200 basis points cut. This is mainly because most of the loans they are under their BPLR. Although, the rate of prime (read BPLR) Indian banks ranged between 11 percent and 15.75 percent, but three-quarters of their total loans made under this level due to competitive pressures in the banking sector is fragmented and everything will be stable as in the past, and finally they live in peace for ever, very touching.

what is BPLR ?

2010-09-15T22:48:00.001-07:00

In a powerful banking and big, which means BPLR Benchmark Prime Lending Rate. BPLR is the interest rate that commercial banks usually charge (or we can say they are expected to fill) that most of their customers' credit-worthy of them legitimate. Although under the terms of the Reserve Bank of India, the Bank is free to fix the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) for credit limits over Rs.2 lakhs with the consent of the Council has not BPLR each must be published and made uniformly applicable at all branches. The banks may authorize their Asset Liability Management (ALCO) to fix interest rates Deposits and Advances, subject to their report to the Board shortly thereafter. The banks also must declare the maximum spread over BPLR with the approval of the ALCO / Board for all advances.

2010-09-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

Despite having more than 40 banks, commercial borrowing in east Africa's biggest economy remains stubbornly high, averaging 15 percent. Analysts put this down to lack of competition in segmented markets.
Njuguna Ndung'u Governor of the Central Bank has urged commercial banks for months to lower their lending rates to help spur growth with looser monetary policy will be more and more things like that.
Barclays, in Kenya's second largest bank by assets, said earlier this month will reduce the base rate to 13.75 percent from 15.75 percent while cutting back cooperation with the 100 basis points to 14 percent and will certainly be more than that.

Benchmark Interest Rate

2010-09-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

you know, what is the benchmark interest rate?
well, if you did not know, then I'll give a little explanation here:
Benchmark interest rate is the lowest interest rate that investors will receive for non-Treasury investments. Benchmark interest rate is also known as the basic interest rate or interest rates since the benchmark rate threshold is the threshold below which investors refuse to invest. Benchmark interest rate associated with the interest rate offered on the most recently issued (on-the-run) Treasury security. Investors often request that the benchmark interest rate to bring the last premiumover Treasury security issued. Because generally possible for investors to obtain investment pay more than its benchmark interest rate, one of the hallmarks of an investment that pays its benchmark interest rate is security. Benchmark interest rate is often associated with conservative and safe investment.
so, if you notice the reference interest rate then you will know when the benchmark high and when the reference will become lighter, and by then you could make a list of references that you always update, that's a little information about the benchmark interest rate from me, I hope It can help you.

3 ways you are affected by the rate cut

2010-09-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

The banks with the subprime crisis and the housing slow down the Feds forced to cut benchmark interestrates from 5.25% to 2% in just over a year. 50 basis points on September 7, 25 in October, 25 in December, 75 January 8th, 50 points back in January, March 25 and 75 points back in April. Most of this benefits the banks, brokers and speculators who have profited immensely from the growth in subprime mortgages. You are impacted by this in three ways.

1. Every dollar the Feds create newresults in a decrease in purchasing power, lowering its standard of living and threatens retirement. Money is like any other commodity. The greater supply of dollars, not worth it. The value of the dollar is falling at an alarming rate.

2. This brings us to the next impact. Commodity prices rise. The purchasing power of the dollar goes down. To balance, the prices of commodities rise. I believe that rising oil prices is not relapse to the oil crisis, but it is a currency crisis createdto cut the federal interest.

3. Subsequently, the yields obtained becomes smaller. Tariffs, or savings accounts, CDs, short-term bonds to reduce all. How do you protect yourself from this? 1. Put your money to invest and reduce consumption.Credit invite cards to spend on consumer goods. Do not yield to temptation.2. Investing in high dividend paying stocks following this blog.Dividend paying stocks is the biggest secret of wealth in the long termbuilding. You can build your fortune with shares of large cap companies.

10 tips to manage labor more effectively

2010-09-14T10:12:00.003-07:00

Typically, labor rates were in the $7.00/hour range five years ago. In many direct businesses today they have reached $12.00 to $13.00, plus a 20% benefit rate added on. But overall productivity has remained flat over a 5- to 10-year period. So, after factoring in the increasing labor rates, productivity has actually declined. Then consider employee turnover. Industry experience is that employee turnover in many centers is 15%-25% or higher. Turnover costs range from $3,000 to $10,000 in people time, training, testing and the ramp-up to full production. This does not include expenses for agencies, ads, etc., which must be added on.

Given the current economic climate, most businesses are mandated to get more out of the resources they have. Here are 10 ways to improve productivity by managing labor more effectively.

1. Improve your odds with new employees

Hire right. How many times have you had new employees quit because they didn’t understand what the job entailed, or didn’t like it once they tried it? No matter how good the person comes across in an interview, you can’t tell how well you’ve hired until they start working.

Some companies have had good results by giving prospective employees some limited instruction and then letting them try the work.
Determine if there are tests you can give that assess whether people can do the work or have a good chance of fitting into your culture.
Use a “buddy system” with a seasoned employee in the department to get the new employee off to the best start.
Look at whether you have an effective training program by function. Will cross training improve production and give you flexibility in staff utilization?

2. Measure employee turnover and do something about it

Set up a system to track and calculate employee turnover monthly. Develop a turnover report showing the number of employees hired, employees who started training, employees who left while in training and the number who leave once they graduate to the production staff. Establish an exit interview process to learn more about why people leave. Look at the turnover by months and years of service. Are you seeing turnover with long-term employees? New hires? Calculate the cost of recruiting, training and losing an employee and get management to understand the reasons and the costs. From there establish a plan of action for change.

3. Set standards or expectations

There is an old industrial engineering axiom: You can’t improve something you haven’t measured. Set up production goals by department and individual. (Departments or functions include receiving, put away, replenishment, picking, packing, shipping, and returns.) There are two ways to do this: engineered standards, and benchmark goals or expectations. Engineered standards are expensive for small to moderate sized companies to establish and maintain. However, most companies can gain from setting expectations based on benchmarking with other companies. This will let you understand productivity, costs and best practices in other businesses. Study your operation and set up internal production standards that can be measured and are fair. Don’t just use someone else’s standards, as they probably will not fit your operation. The most importantbenchmark exercise is to measure your production against yourself, seasonally, by month and week. Increase the “height of the bar” over time and you’ll generally see overall productivity increase. The most difficult part of all this is getting accurate production data.

4. Develop labor budget by function

Many operations have a planned dollar budget for the month. While dollars can be derived from this, a labor budget shows the number of hours needed by function based on the order and work flow. The budget should be planned by month, week and day if possible. For each of the various flows, identify the major activities: orders, receipts, returns, etc. The starting point for the orders is the projected order flow that marketing is expecting. For receipts this can come from purchase order files of expected receipts. Returns can be planned from the expected return rate. Production expectation for hours are derived based on the benchmarks that you set for your operation as described above.

The key here is to convert the transaction volumes expected to units of work. For example in the receiving area, it will mean estimating pallets and cases by the week and preferably by the day. In picking it means extending the number of orders by day into the units per order. Identify and plan variable and fixed labor required to meet these volumes.

Sum this all up to a weekly level. Over time as you get more experience and history you can experiment with taking it to a daily level. Challenge your supervisors to see this as standard for hiring and bringing in personnel. We all know that there is “play” in these volume estimates, but using this methodology will help you plan for improving customer service and keeping overtime to a minimum.

5. Give employees feedback

Most people want to feel they are part of the bigger company picture. They also deserve to have accurate feedback about their production. LifeWay Christian Resources, a religious nonprofit based in Nashville, TN that is the publishing, retail and direct commerce arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, is a great example. In their logistics management offices they display monthly graphs for the past year of metrics such as total error rate, cost of a transaction, reported savings, etc. Actual against plan is shown. Current production is displayed on terminals and boards, and they not only acknowledge department records for various departmental functions, but individual record holders for such activities as packing. LifeWay also uses monitors in packing and other departments to show production versus plan for the day.

6. Provide incentives

More and more companies are using incentives to increase production. A large multi-brand catalog client we work with volunteered, “Incentives require engineered standards to be fair and to keep productivity increasing. If they are not continually evaluated, chances are that you’ll end up paying an incentive for production that you have gained over time.”

7. Deal with seasonal spikes

Each year the customer buys closer to the peak and counts on operations to deliver on time-compressing the peaks dramatically. Stay in contact off-season with part timers who have worked the peaks for you. Consider using bonuses smartly: a) rehiring bonus; b) stay the season bonus; c) refer-a-friend bonus. Try temporary help agencies to meet the peak requirements.

8. Streamline functions

Three areas-picking, packing and returns processing-make up 60%-80% of the labor cost. Look at each of these areas to determine how to reduce the work required. For example:

In picking, 60% of the pickers’ time is in walking. Can you slot fast-moving product (which is 20%-30% of the product) in closer proximity (”hot pick” zones) to reduce pick time? Are there other picking methods like cart/bin, pick to light or voice pick which will increase production?
In packing, can the pack station be engineered ergonomically to increase production? Can low tech solutions such as box builders or envelope inserters speed up production?
In returns, can the steps be simplified? Can a team approach speed up processing?

9. Set up a continual improvement process

Streamlining labor functions is not a one-time activity. You will need to set up a continual improvement process-a set of activities designed to bring gradual, but steady improvement through constant review-to reduce and simplify the steps and number of times you “touch” product. Each time you touch product, you add cost.

10. Look at what more you can do as a manager

Each of us needs to look introspectively at our leadership and managerial capabilities. Here are a few questions we need to answer:

What motivates staff members to excel beyond normal expected performance?
Have you delegated and empowered your staff to achieve success?
Are your team members the most capable and talented people you can afford to hire?
Are any of the staff too weak to enable you to achieve the success you were hired to achieve?
How effectively and objectively do you evaluate the performance and development of your team members?

One of our clients at a large multichannel company summed it up best: “Managing labor is a game of reducing a few pennies here and there on an organized basis to reduce the cost per order overall. At the same time, we need to take into account how we can motivate and increase productivity fairly to achieve our company’s goals.”

the details of brenchmarking

2010-09-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time, and cost. Improvements from learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper.

Benchmarking involves management identifying the best firms in their industry, or any other industry where similar processes exist, and comparing the results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's own results and processes to learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, how they do it.

The term benchmarking was first used by cobblers to measure people's feet for shoes. They would place someone's foot on a "bench" and mark it out to make the pattern for the shoes. Benchmarking is most used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others.

Also referred to as "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking", it is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which organizations continually seek to improve their practices.

benchmark lending ? what is that ?

2010-09-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

do you know if that is the benchmark lending it?
Benchmark is the term by which we mean a set of standards used to evaluate the level of quality or performance. This cab is pulled from the company's own experience or from experiences of other companies. While the interest of reference we refer to the interest rate that banks must pay when they borrow money. Now you would think that banks are not also borrow money from others in the form of the loan? The answer would be yes, banks also borrowed money. Banks must keep some money in reserve. But sometimes it happens that they do not borrow money for short periods of time, say one night, then they have no reserves left, for this they had to borrow money at a certain interest rate. For this reason, banks and mortgage companies try to find people who need a loan and then give them credit, so that banks could obtain money from the loans granted to customers by taking interest. This can be valuable business for the bankers and mortgage companies that provide credit, if there are many customers in the market.