HSBC MF plans to unveil Brazil Equity Fund

Mutual Fund is set to launch an open-ended fund of fund scheme called HSBC Brazil Equity Fund. The fund has filed an offer document with the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The fund's performance will be benchmarked to the MSCI Brazil 10/40 Index. The minimum application amount is Rs 10,000.

Last week, Benchmark Mutual Fund launched its first international exchange-traded fund, the Hang Seng BeES, based on the Hong Kong stock exchange's Hang Seng index. In July 2009, JPMorgan Asset Management had launched Greater China Equity Offshore Fund, while in September, Mirae Asset Global Investment launched its Mirae Asset China Advantage Fund.

Wipro employee commits $4 Million fraud

IT major Wipro has tightened internal control in the finance division after it was noticed that one of its employees embezzled crores of rupees in the last three years. The employee, who was working in the 'controllership' division within the finance department in the last three years, stole a password and transferred funds from Wipro's account at a bank.

Suresh C Senapaty, Wipro's CFO has also confirmed the incident. "This has been a case of embezzlement, which we discovered in December, and it's very unfortunate that this person succumbed to this," he said. According to him, the company has carried out an investigation and is undertaking actions with respect to stricter adherence to processes.Following this, Wipro has disbanded the controllership unit. Wipro officials have succeeded in recovering about half the money, but will still face a loss of about $2 million. The CFO said the incident did not involve more than one Wipro employee. "Our investigations have revealed that only this employee was involved, and nobody else in the team had any clue," Senapaty said.

Apart from setting up an internal investigation team, Wipro has also taken help from external auditors and investigation experts who will vet its processes and certify the soundness of its controls. Wipro has always taken pride in the sound work ethics of its employees and in the strictness of its controls. "We have to be more alert in monitoring, and we need to tighten the processes for ensuring an early warning system and make it tougher," Senapaty said.Now, Wipro plans to make it compulsory for its employees to sign an undertaking about sharing of passwords and any unauthorized transactions.

The company is also planning to frequently rotate its employees, who are working in sensitive functions within the finance department. Currently, employees in such functions spend around three years before a transfer.

Wipro inks pact with GE for $1 Billion deal

Wipro has signed a master services agreement (MSA) with General electric to bid for nearly $1 billion worth of outsourcing projects fleshed out by different business units of GE every year. This step may help Wipro to stand firmly against rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Genpact.

A senior executive at one of the tech firms currently serving GE said, "While it does not in any way guarantee assured contracts, GE is a good account to have for long-term, annuity-based revenues because even if the micro environment is bad, one of the GE units would have something to outsource, offshore." He requested anonymity because he is not authorized to comment about his company's customers. It would be incorrect to say that GE a new customer for Wipro. Even two decades ago, when Jack Welch visited India, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji was one of the first partners to sell Welch's healthcare products. A person familiar with this agreement said, "Both the companies started healthcare business and an outsourcing alliance later, however, since 2000 Wipro has not been doing any significant outsourcing work for GE - in many ways, this is a great comeback."However, some experts feel that GE can't become a large account for Wipro anytime soon. "They may start at around $10-20 million annually, but with so much of competition for the GE business, I am not sure if Wipro would also like it to become big," said a senior executive at one of the rival firms on conditions of anonymity