'Now, address your banking grievances to the ombudsman'

PANAJI: With an aim to facilitate quicker and smoother resolution of banking customers' grievances, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banking ombudsman for Maharashtra and Goa, V Ramachandra Rao, has said that he would visit Goa every month to address complaints and bring about conciliation between banks and customers. Rao, who was addressing mediapersons on the banking ombudsman scheme of the RBI, said that the role of an ombudsman has come into prominence after the movement for a Lokpal. The RBI began the banking ombudsman scheme in 1995, and has 15 banking ombudsman offices in the country. The current version of the scheme was last amended in 2009. Rao, who said he was the "banking lokpal", requested people to come forward and send their complaints against banking related grievances on loans, credit cards, operation of accounts, delay in payments of drafts or any other deficient service to the banking ombudsman. He said his role was helping customers and protecting the interests of depositors of banks. MAR Prabhu, general manager of RBI's Goa office, said people could also submit their complaints to the RBI Goa office which will then forward the same to the ombudsman. Speaking on the charges levied by banks for pre-closure of home loans, Rao said "recently 34 major banks have agreed to do away with the charges." "These banks hold 95% of the home loan portfolio," he added. Rao said Goa had the best banking infrastructure with 3,180 branches. He also said only 5% of the complaints received by his office originated from Goa, but added that it doesn't mean banking services were perfect in the state.

TOI

Advisers seek wider role for IES in economic policy-making

................ “The role of the IES has to be reassessed where it is actually involved in policy at the middle level. It has to be taking day-to-day decisions on economic policy-making.”.....................


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RBI to open its offices in all NE States – V.S.Das

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon open its offices in all North East states to cater to the needs of bank facilities. This was disclosed by RBI Executive Director, V.S. Das during a financial Outreach Camp organized by RBI at Changki village of Mokokchung district on 8th February 2012. He also assured to open a Branch Office of Allahabad Bank at Changki village shortly. Describing RBI as Bankers Bank and custodian of economy in the country, Das said RBI has embarked on organizing financial outreach camps in villages throughout the country since RBI Platinum Jubilee celebration in 2009-10 focusing on bringing awareness amongst the people regarding banking facilities available and to make an attempt at making available such facilities to every adult citizen in the targeted area to bring them under the fold of mainstream banking. Giving a strong signal to all nationalized banks in the country for offering better bank services to the customers, the Executive Director urged all banks to provide better bank service by going to the door steps of customers. He also laid stress on the need to provide quality facilities and identifying their priority areas to accelerate the tempo of economic development in the country. On the other hand Executive Director called upon the customers to be a good bank customer. The Changki financial Outreach Camp of RBI, inaugurated by V.S. Das was the third such programme in the state after Khonoma in 2009 and Chumukedima in 2011. The one-day camp was attended by villagers of Changki and neighboiuring village under Mangkolemba Su-division. The camp was also addressed by RBI Regional Director, Guwahati Surekha Marandi, top officials of Nationalized Banks in the region, Deputy Commissioner Mokokchung and other official from the state government. In their speech, Deputy Commissioner Mokokchung, Lithrongla G. Chishi and Wati, Additional Secretary, Finance, Government of Nagaland expressed their gratitude to RBI for organizing the camp and hoped that it would help banking culture among the masses. Earlier, V.S. Das had an interactive session with School children Self Help Groups in a move to inculcate them banking culture. On the occasion, various banks and Agri and Allied Departments set up exhibition stalls to disseminate information regarding credit facilities/government schemes available for the benefit of villagers and the participants. The facility of exchange of soiled/mutilated notes and exchange of currency notes with coins was also extended on the occasion. RBI and other Banks had presented gifts to schools and SHGs to mark the camp.

http://iprnagaland.gov.in/component/k2/item/1610-rbi-to-open-its-offices-in-all-ne-states?tmpl=component&print=1

RBI reaches out to Naga hamlet

On a quiet winter morning on Wednesday, bosses of the country’s banking sector descended on the sleepy village of Changki, about 30km from the Assam-Nagaland border, to highlight the importance of financial literacy at the grassroots..............

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9213 villages to have banking facility soon

PATNA: To comply with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prescription, all 9,213 villages in the state, each with a population of 2,000, would have banking facility through bank correspondent (BC) model by the end of the current fiscal, ending March 31........... 

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Systems beyond silos

........RBI Governor D Subbarao has made an important speech at a recent RBI conference. The speech emphasises that RBI is being asked to do too much, and there are conflicts in delivering the various objectives placed on RBI. Financial stability cannot and should not be the sole responsibility of RBI, for which, as the Governor points out, RBI has no mandate...........

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The great ATM robbery in the making

“We are writing to all the banks across the city to enforce RBI safety guidelines by providing a unique PIN number for every account holder and for each transaction……..

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Now, ATMs can advertise financial products

Banks with a large network of automated teller machines (ATM) will now be able to generate additional revenue by advertising financial products offered by other institutions. With an eye on financial inclusion and to incentivise banks for opening ATMs in remote areas, the finance ministry has allowed bank-owned as well as outsourced ATMs to display advertisements of other financial products. RBI will soon issue guidelines in this regard. The State Bank of India having about 80,000 ATMs currently is likely to benefit most. Among private players, Axis Bank and HDFC could also gain. Banks with a small ATM network would benefit by getting more visibility for their products at large bank ATMs. These products carry the approval of various regulators like the Reserve Bank of India, Securities & Exchange Board of India, Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority. A finance ministry official said it had been a long standing demand of the industry to allow outside vendors to advertise financial products of other banks and financial institutions apart from the products of the sponsoring bank for a fee. The official added that the advertising revenue would enable banks to reduce transaction costs of ATMs. Currently, banks work on a outsourced model based on per transaction basis for ATM deployment. The cost of setting up of an ATM is about Rs 5-6 lakh. Advertising revenues can offset a part of this cost and make the proposition more viable for banks.

BS

Gold loans at last draw RBI’s attention

........Some 14 months late, the RBI has "cautioned members of public that those who deposit money with Manappuram Finance or MAGRO, do so at their own risk". The warning should have come much earlier...................

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'Govt keen to promote microfinance'

“Micro finance sector is already being governed by RBI, it does not require a money lenders act,”………….

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Rangarajan disappointed at IIP; hopes FY13 GDP to be 7.5%

....... Rangarajan also assured that the government's immediate aim was to bring down inflation to 6%, but when it falls to 6.5%, one can expect the RBI to ease rates. However, IIP is not the data that the Reserve Bank of India looks very closely at, especially the provisional numbers, because they tend to be very volatile. Definitely for policymaking, the WPI numbers are more crucial. The next WPI numbers are to be declared on February 14.…….

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‘Reduced loan to further dampen realty market’

Reserve Bank of India’s recent circular to commercial banks to reduce the loan to value (LTV) ratio for home loans has created havoc in Ahmedabad’s slowdown-affected realty market...............

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Comexes wait for critical mass

.... In a separate move, the finance ministry has already sought the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) opinion on allowing banks to hedge their risks on commodity futures and RBI is understood to have asked banks to give their views. Banks are prepared to enter this space because it helps them manage their risk while financing the commodity trade or companies. In fact, several banks have bought stakes in commodity exchanges. For example the State Bank of India holds 5.2 per cent in MCX and IDBI Bank holds 10 per cent in new exchange UCX......

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India Inc seeks interest rate cut, cites low IIP growth

..... "The RBI needs to move quickly from its pause on interest rate hikes to a policy of cutting rates to encourage investments."......

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Now, banks must pass exam for deposits

Bihar government has decided to deposit its capital only in banks which pass a test based on the Credit Deposit Ratio (CDR)............

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More trouble for Dhanlaxmi Bank says trade union

.......... “…the apex bank, RBI (Reserve Bank of India), showed its displeasure on the MD after getting the memorandum from the AIBOC regarding the health of the bank. It is common man’s guess that the MD has put in his papers due to the intervention of RBI because of his non-performance. However, he is still using his clout with the media to project himself as a martyr. A post mortem is needed to uncover the full dealings of the MD and his associates, right from October 2008 onwards.” ..............

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Professor Ray offers a series of Workshops on Data Envelopment Analysis in India

.... The final leg of his tour took him to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of the country, in Mumbai (known previously as Bombay). There he delivered an invited lecture at the Head Office of RBI on the measurement of productivity in banks, and offered an assessment of the impact of liberalization in the Indian banking industry comparing the performance of public sector, private, and foreign commercial banks. Apart from the lecture, he offered two days of hands-on instruction on how to measure efficiency to a group of young officers at the Economics and Statistics Division of RBI.......
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Solvency, auditing guidelines for LLPs on the cards

The government is set to introduce stringent solvency and auditing norms for limited liability partnerships (LLPs), which would increase the compliance burden for them but bring in more transparency to satisfy the regulatory concerns raised by the Reserve Bank of India...............

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No foreign donations for political parties, media

The rules follow the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010 which seeks to replace the earlier Act of 1976. The main difference between the new Act and the old is that political parties have for the first time been debarred from receiving contributions from abroad……………..

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