Now, village gets mobile banking service

Mobile banking services which was being concentrated in the urban areas of Karnataka till now, is being extended to rural areas also, taking rural masses towards economic empowerment.  For the first time in the state, the Reserve Bank of India has extended its mobile banking services to Harwada village in Ankola taluk through the Syndicate Bank. Harwada is mainly dominated by the fishermen community and all its 1,200 families residing in this village can avail the banking service. With this facility, the villagers of Harwada have become customers of Syndicate Bank, said bank officials.

RBI may get to oversee banks’ related outfits

THE government plans to empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow it to inspect related arms of banks such as mutual funds and insurance companies to ensure their operations do not pose any systemic risk to the lenders.   The finance ministry plans to incorporate new provisions in amendments to a banking legislation to allow the central bank greater regulatory oversight over associate enterprises of banking companies such as mutual funds, insurance and factoring operations, said a senior official in the ministry.  The ministry plans to seek the approval of the cabinet this month for changes which will be part of the Banking Laws Bill. The official said the proposal seeking to provide more powers of oversight to RBI was taken after an assessment of emerging global regulations, especially in response to the crisis in the global financial markets that involved some systemically important financial institutions, the official said.

Search panel conducts interviews for Sebi chief

A government search panel today held interviews for the post of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman, which will fall vacant on February 17 after incumbent C B Bhave’s term ends. Association of Mutual Funds in India’s (Amfi’s) Chairman U K Sinha and Corporate Affairs Secretary R Badyopadhyay are considered front-runners for the post.  The search panel expressed hope that the new chairman would be appointed before the post fell vacant. “The post would fall vacant on February 17, 2011. We would have the successor before that,” said Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, a part of the panel. Other people in the race include Additional Secretary, Department of Disinvestment, S Pradhan, Madhya Pradesh Principal Secretary G P Singhal and two State Bank of India (SBI) Managing Directors, S K Bhattacharya and RSridharan. Of those selected for the final interview, at least two — SBI Chairman O P Bhatt and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty — expressed their unwillingness for the position, sources said. The panel headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar includes Financial Services Secretary R Gopalan and Department of Personnel Secretary Shantanu Consul.

Safeguard regulatory autonomy, Bhave says