RBI creates awareness about fake currency

Tirupati: How to find out whether a foreign currency is fake or genuine? How to transfer money from one country to another? These doubts can be clarified at the Reserve Bank of India’s exhibition and interaction programme. RBI inaugurated a two-day exhibition and interaction programme here on Saturday to spread awareness among the public about fake currency and fraud activities. It is the ninth exhibition in the state. It was earlier conducted at places including Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Guntur and Vizag. Speaking to The Hans India, Basheer, Deputy General Manager of RBI, said that the programme’s aim was to create awareness among students, children, public and educated youth about fake currencies, bogus lotteries, fraudsters false promises and to know about the NRI banking activities and money transfer from one country to another. He advised the public not to fall prey for fraudsters’ promises, whether they are lotteries or multi-level marketing schemes. “That is the reason, we invited principals, faculty, academicians and industrial associations’ representatives,” he added. The same exhibition will be organised at Nellore town from February 21, for two days, he said.

http://www.thehansindia.info/News/Article.asp?category=5&subCategory=4&ContentId=40614

Workshop on " Managing Global Turbulence"

The Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industrys Banking, Finance & Economics Committee is organising a Workshop on " Managing Global Turbulence" with special reference to SMEs on February 21 at Rangeshwar Hall, Y. B. Chavan Centre, Mumbai. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, RBI, other speakers include Jamal Mecklai- Chair, Economic Policy & Affairs Group, Bombay Chamber & CEO, Mecklai Financial, Samiran Chakraborty- Regional Head of Research India, Standard Chartered Bank, Sajjid Chinoy- India Economist, JP Morgan & others.

FPJ

India’s gold fetish —Sonali Ranade

.....The RBI must proactively think in terms of creating an institutional structure for comprehensive management of gold in the domestic economy. Given the deregulation of all interest rates, the RBI has considerable leeway in using markets to create a market for gold that minimises the use of physical gold as an investment vehicle while being transparent to all investors.The RBI should set up Gold Bank of India, which would take in deposits in gold and also lend gold against adequate collateral to other banks and institutions. It would have complete freedom to import or export gold.......

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Rejuvenating the Cooperative Sector

........Perhaps a more important feature of cooperative development is that the penetrative out- reach of the command area of the rural cooperative is formidable as emphasized by V. K. Sharma ( see RBI Bulletin Jan 2012). Commercial Banks and Regional Rural Banks ( RRBs) account for some 33,000 rural branches. In sharp contrast, the network of cooperative credit institutions accounts for a total of 1,22,590 service centres: 33 State Cooperative Banks with 953 branches: 371 District Central Cooperative Banks ( DCCBs) with 12,858 branches: and 109,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies ( PACs). Thus although in terms of magnitudes of flow of credit, the role of cooperative credit institutions is somewhat modest, the ubiquitous presence of these institutions is quite obvious. This has great relevance for financial inclusion. Unfortunately, Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) seems to think that financial inclusion is the exclusive prerogative of commercial banks. There is a need to involve cooperative credit institutions in this exercise............

http://epaper.fpj.co.in/Details.aspx?id=15817&boxid=14229578

RBI asks banks to formulate UCI code for customers

The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to consider putting in place unique customer identification (UCI) numbers for customers and filter out multiple banking facilities availed by them through a de-duplication exercise.......

“The banks could also work jointly to set up a shared database which would enable them to securely see information on a customer (KYC information and facilities availed from various banks etc.) based on a unique identifier i.e. his Aadhaar ID,” says KC Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, RBI

RBI asks banks to formulate UCI code for customers - Indian Express

Women's SHG fund to get cabinet nod in next meet

.... The ministry of rural development had suggested that loans given to SHGs be brought under priority sector lending of banks and recommended a dedicated national bank for women SHG instead of a one-time fund.  "Both the issues need approvals from the Reserve Bank of India. As of now there has been no significant development on any of these proposals,".......

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In terms of economic fundamentals, we are fine: Ex-RBI Governor Bimal Jalan

….I wouldn't like to comment on what I could have done or what the RBI should do. But fortunately for us, the inflation scenario has improved. That's a great advantage. Inflation rates might still be higher than what we want, but there is no severe problem like there was, say, 3 or 4 months back when prices were very high. This is a ripe time, therefore, to boost investment in the economy……. 

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SBI to decide on cutting lending rates for students and small businessmen on Tuesday

…….While SBI may be taking a lead in cutting education loan rates, Central bank was first to lower home loan rates and Bank of Maharashtra lowered its base rate, although marginally, last week. Decision to cut rates comes after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signaled a reversal of interest rate cycle in January…………

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Indian Bank introduces account portability facility

NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Bank has introduced account portability feature which allows its customers to retain the account number even if they change the branch. The facility would enable the customer to have the freedom of operating his or her account from any of the branches, Indian Bank said in statement. "The customers can shift his or her account to any of the desired branch any number of times, without any change in the account number, with just a change in home branch code," it said. "Customers can approach his home branch or the transferee branch with the request letter for transfer of account," it said. Home branch having the customer's account certifies the know your customer (KYC) documents while transferring the account to another branch, it added. Indian Bank has got the account portability feature in-built in core banking software, for transfer of the deposit accounts from one branch to another branch, it said.

ET

Private banks lobbying with Kerala govt for biz share

Thiruvananthapuram : The Reserve Bank authorisation to open up the Central/State Government business to ‘all private sector banks' has triggered intense lobbying locally...........

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No RBI Word yet on KR Pradeep’s Appointment at Lakshmi Vilas

Professional links to cos he audits seen as a hindrance to his appointment as bank’s chairman

RBI is holding back the approval to appoint chartered accountant KR Pradeep as the chairman of Lakshmi Vilas Bank as the regulator believes his professional relationships may come in the way of decision making at the helm of the private sector lender. “KR Pradeep runs an accounting firm under his name out of Bangalore and handles the accounts of various corporates which is one of the concerns raised by RBI,” said a person familiar with the regulator’s view. “RBI has also asked the bank to suggest two new names for the post,” said the person not wanting to be identified. The Karur-based bank has been without a chairman for more than a year now after S Narayan retired in January 2011. PM Somasundaram, MD and CEO at the bank, could not be reached for comments. But Pradeep said in a text message: “RBI is actively considering my name for approval.” The central bank’s hesitation in the approval is also due to the fact that Pradeep falls under the promoter category, which owns about 11.5% stake in the bank, said the person. RBI is paranoid about people with corporate links at the top of a bank as there are chances of prudence in lending getting compromised. This is one of the reasons why it has been imposing conditions even in case of proposed new banking licences. The central bank has called the bank’s senior management for a discussion on the appointment this week. “They had asked us to submit two additional names but the question of doing that does not arise since Pradeep’s name has been cleared at the AGM,” said another person who knows the bank’s stance. “We are not pursuing the matter actively as there is an MD and CEO running the bank.” Somasundaram, an alumnus of Standard Chartered, joined Lakshmi Vilas Bank in 2010 to transform the sleepy community lender into a full-fledged bank that could prepare it to compete with the giants such as ICICI and HDFC Bank which have begun encroaching into its territory. While he managed to reduce the bad loans, it has a long way to go in terms of products and services.  “We are working hard to shed the image of an old private sector bank,” Somasundaram said in an interview with ET last year. “We want to play the role of a new generation bank by offering services on par with leading private sector banks. For this, we need to focus on retail and improve our services.”

ET

Will appointment of auditors by regulators enhance independence?

.... Until 2005, the RBI was directly involved in the appointment of auditors in public sector banks. Currently, public sector banks appoint auditors under the supervision of RBI. The accounting profession generally believes that auditors enjoy a higher level of independence when regulators appoint auditors. In October 2011, the then President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Mr. Ramaswamy, argued in favour of appointment of auditors of public sector banks directly by the RBI.......

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White-label ATMs have hurdles of cost and competition to overcome

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may have come out with its draft guidelines last week allowing private operators to set up white-label ATMs (WLA) or stand-alone ATMs. But it is never going to be an easy task for the operators considering the costs involved in setting up private ATMs and in competing with the bank ATMs in attracting crowds.............

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Bank rate lives to die another day

............Being the discount rate, the bank rate should technically be higher than the policy repo rate but it took nine years for RBI to realize this. One wonders what prevents the Indian central bank from killing the bank rate as it has become irrelevant.................

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Too early for comfort

...Will the lower inflation figures prompt the RBI to commence the long awaited phase of interest rate reductions? A monetary policy review is due in March and on the face of it, the January inflation figures do improve the odds for a round of monetary easing.....

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IBA seeks tax relief for foreign banks to incorporate locally

….According to the RBI paper, all new overseas banks in India will have to locally incorporate themselves, and existing players, particularly the systemically important ones, will be encouraged to opt for local incorporation and act as subsidiaries of foreign parents. But the apex bank is yet to announce its guidelines. According to tax experts and bankers, foreign banks are unlikely to convert their branches in to subsidiaries unless the huge tax burden is removed…..

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Cheque transaction value down 6.4% in Dec: RBI

Total value of transactions through cheques across the country amounted to Rs 8.17 lakh crore in December 2011, down 6.4 per cent compared to the same month last year. Banks cleared cheques worth Rs 8.74 lakh crore in December 2010, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). ............

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Govt to provide adequate capital to PSU banks: Pranab

.... To strengthen risk management mechanism, RBI has issued issued draft guidelines, envisaging that the equity capital of a bank should not be less than 5.5 per cent of risk-weighted loans. These guidelines envisaged more stringent norms on capital adequacy, Mukherjee said, adding, "on our part, the government has committed to maintain the minimum 8 per cent Tier I (equity capital) in all public sector banks which is over and above the regulatory requirement of 6 per cent.".....

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Ben Bernanke, the great innovator

There are several central bankers one could admire, especially those who held steadfast against widespread political opposition because the measures took time to take effect. Notable in this regard is of course Paul Volcker, who slew the dragon of inflation. In India, there was C Rangarajan, who did much the same thing, and Y V Reddy who explicitly targeted asset prices when it was unfashionable, indeed heretical, to do so............

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Banks seek RBI guidelines on shifting procedure

NOIDA: Banks that have been displaced by the Supreme Court order have written to the lead district bank asking %it to forward a request to the RBI to issue standard guidelines on the shifting process. Banks have expressed %their inability to shift out by March 5, considering that some are yet to find alternate commercial locations.  Meanwhile, those banks that have opted for the Noida Authority's new land scheme may have to approach the court too seeking an extension of the March 5 deadline. Noida Authority has said that it will seal all banks operating from residential plots even if they have opted for the scheme.

TOI

Bosses take stock of policy steps

.....“This is a pre-budget FSDC meeting. The finance minister heard all the regulators. Of course the RBI has responsibility both for macro-economic management and for banking regulation. The outcome of today’s meeting will be reflected in the budget,” RBI governor D. Subbarao told reporters here. Apart from the RBI governor, the meeting was attended by Sebi chairman U.K. Sinha and PFRDA chairman Yogesh Agarwal and secretaries in the finance ministry....

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Pranab Mukherjee to skip G-20 Ministerial meeting in Mexico

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will skip the meeting of G-20 Ministers and governors of central banks in Mexico between February 24-26 as he is pre-occupied with his next Budget, sources said. "Finance Minister will not be attending the G-20 Ministerial," a source said, adding that RBI Governor D Subbarao will be participating in the three-day deliberations. Mexico is holding the Presidency of the G-20 this year and the Ministerial deliberations will culminate in the Summit of leaders to be held at Los Cabos later in the year.

TOI

Provide incentives for investment in financial assets to discourage gold imports: C Rangarajan

.... India's massive gold imports that are fuelling an already bloated current account deficit have drawn concern from the country's top policy advisory body. The C Rangarajan-headed prime minister's economic advisory council (PMEAC), in its review of the economy, has suggested more incentives for investments in financial assets to discourage gold purchases in the country.......

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Govt to cover exempt sectors in second phase of XBRL roll-out

.... The regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India, have also started implementing XBRL..........

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RBI may cut interest rate by 100 bps this year: Citi

....“Given that the RBI has said that the quantum and timing of rate cuts would be dependent on fiscal consolidation, we expect the repo rate to be cut post the Budget (due on March 16), that is, RBI’s April 17 annual policy review,”.......

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Cards to make Metro travel easy

......The cards will be issued by the bank to its customers but it is up to the bank to charge its customers for it. However the travel fare for a passenger will be the same whether he uses a Metro Card or a Combo card. In future, if Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules permit, the card can be extended to retail etc., said sources..........

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P C George to hold 'Satyagraha' on Feb 27

KANNUR: Government Chief Whip P C George Sunday said he would organise a Satyagraha in front of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on February 27 to protest ..............

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JNNURM, farmers’ loan waiver scheme under CAG lens

.... In the farmers' debt waiver scheme, the CAG has received banking data from RBI and has also examined the books of state-owned banks and regional rural banks. CAG has scanned the disbursement of debt waiver made by public sector banks across the country with sample field visits......

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