‘Financial inclusion programme to serve villagers better'

P. Vijaya Bhaskar, Executive Director of the RBI distributing a cheque to self help groups members at Krishnasagar in Khammam district on Friday

Financial literacy holds the key to attain economic self-reliance and herald inclusive growth, said P. Vijaya Bhaskar, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

He was speaking at an outreach and financial literacy awareness camp at Krishnasagar village in Burgumpadu mandal on Friday. Addressing a large gathering of farmers, members of self-help groups and others, Mr. Vijaya Bhaskar said the financial inclusion programme was aimed at spreading financial literacy and extending the banking services to the villages. The RBI has been implementing the financial inclusion programme to bring more number of people especially the rural masses under the banking network. Business correspondents are being appointed in the unbanked villages having a population of over 2,000 and zero balance accounts were being provided to the rural poor as part of the endeavour to ensure banking services to the villagers. All these initiatives are intended to achieve the set goal of financial inclusion, he remarked. Later, addressing the students of the tribal welfare junior college in the village, Mr. Vijaya Bhaskar emphasised the need for financial education. Students should equip themselves with the requisite financial knowledge like the functioning of banking system its products and services, he said. During his speech earlier, the Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Bhadrachalam, Project Officer Praveen Kumar said the tribals constitute 28 per cent of the total population of the district. He deplored that the reluctance on the part of some bankers to provide loans to the tribal people of SHGs was depriving the latter of an opportunity to avail subsidies under various government schemes. Mr. Vijaya Bhaskar asserted that steps would be taken to ensure prompt sanction of loans to all the eligible SHGs. He disbursed loans sanctioned by the APGVB under the bank linkage to the members of the SHGs on the occasion.

HBL

Chandigarh Rose Festival gets underway

..... H.S. Kalra, a retired Reserve Bank of India employee who was visiting the festival with his wife said: "We have been visiting the festival since many years now. It has become an annual affair for us. This time, the fresh fruit and flower decorations are better than the last time."............

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Bank employees to strike work

All Class three and four employees of the Reserve Bank represented by the All India Reserve Bank Employees' Association and All India Reserve Bank Workers' Federation will take part in the country-wide strike called by the trade unions on February 28. The Union government and the RBI management's neo-liberal economic policies have badly affected the functioning of the bank and its employees, said a release issued by the association.

HBL

RBI lifts Rs 50,000-a-day cap over mobile banking transactions

....."Banks are increasingly extending mobile banking facilities to their customers. Interbank mobile payment service developed and operated by National Payment Corporation of India has also enabled real-time transfer of funds through...mobile phones between accounts in different banks. The volume and value of mobile banking transactions is also showing an uptrend," RBI said in a statement.......

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Lowering of key rates by RBI depends on fiscal deficit: Montek

…."Interest rate is going to be determined predominately by what happens to the fiscal deficit. The industry is convinced that no matter what happens to fiscal deficit, the RBI will lower the repo rate,".....

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Eurozone needs package to tackle debt crisis, says Pranab

……RBI recently said the European debt crisis pose a major downside risk to country’s overall growth outlook and the continuing uncertainty there “will adversely affect Indian growth through trade, finance and confidence channels”..........

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SBI & its associate banks top list of banking ombudsman complaints

.........State Bank of India (SBI) and associates figure prominently in the list of the annual report of the banking ombudsman scheme for the year 2010-2011 accounting for 31 per cent of the total complaints received against them. Nationalised banks were second in the list with 29 per cent of complaints, followed by 24 per cent against private sector banks and 10 per cent against foreign banks, said the Report released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday......’

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Maharashtra tops debit card usage for shopping: Survey

The usage of debit cards for shopping purpose was the highest in Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh, as per the findings of a survey commissioned by the Reserve Bank of India to assess customer satisfaction in the usage of ATMs across the country...........

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Customer complaints: PSU banks better than private ones

Public sector banks have usually recorded a greater share of customer complaints. When compared with the number of complaints registered with private sector banks the former appear to have better record in customer satisfaction. Of the total complaints with the Reserve Bank of India's Banking Ombudsman as of March 2011, private sector banks (including foreign banks) accounted for as much as 35 per cent, a high figure given that they hold only 12 per cent of the total deposits and loan accounts...........

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Concerns on ATMs, credit & debit cards top complaints

While lenders are keen on diverting basic banking facilities from the traditional branch model to the automated electronic route, the area needs more attention in terms of efficiency, according to the annual report on the banking ombudsman released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The report also said call centres set up by banks to address customer grievances are not able to fulfil their objective effectively. According to the report, 24 per cent of the total complaints received by banks in 2010-11 pertained to transactions carried out through automated teller machines (ATMs), debit and credit cards. Complaints filed in this category primarily related to unsolicited cards & policies, charging fees on ‘free’ cards, abusive calls, skimming of cards, excessive charges, wrong debit to accounts and non-dispensation of money from ATMs. RBI said most queries relating to credit cards were handled by call centres, adding the staff employed at such centres was not very familiar with the card products and the customers of banks. “As such, the response from the call centres is not helpful in resolving customer grievances,” RBI said in the report. Issues related to pension payments ranked second in the list of grievances. Non-adherence to the prescribed working hours and delays, refusals and failure to offer services were other areas of complaints. In 2010-11, there was a drop of 10 per cent in the total number of complaints, though at 94 per cent, the rate of disposal was the same as that a year ago. RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty, who is also the appellate authority for the banking ombudsman, said the small drop in the number of complaints did not point to any specific trend. “What is a matter of satisfaction is the rate of disposal has been sustained,” he said in the report. Selling unsuitable products and charging unfair or unreasonable fees pose challenges to customer services in the Indian banking industry, he added.

BS

Think before you draw money

…“Besides, ATMs, we suggest, should not be located in deserted areas because people can easily access them. There is already an RBI guideline for single PIN transaction that will require banks to generate a new PIN for each transaction that will be sent to the customer’s mobile phone,”....

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TN & UP have highest value of NPA properties in 2011-12: says NPAsource.com study

....Total NPAs in India as of March 31, 2011 were more than Rs. 90,000 crore as per the statistics released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which does not include co-operative banks, SFCs, FIs & NBFCs, whereas globally this figure would run into trillions of dollars...........

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RBI to meet lenders on rising bad loans - Economy and Politics

RBI Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty says that the meeting likely to take place on 29 February or 1 March

....“RBI might want to understand about any possible systemic risk in the system due to rise in bad loans, which would help them to formulate their policies to address this issue.”The central bank and commercial banks have insisted that the situation is not alarming and the Indian banking system is resilient enough to tide over the problem........

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RBI should use bank lending to push companies file reports with Registrar of Companies

The Companies Act, 1956, mandates all kinds of companies - private, public, Section-25 company, closely-held company or a company in which the public is substantially interested - to file annual reports with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). These reports include financial statements and annual returns, essentially, of directorships and shareholding pattern. However, many companies routinely fail to comply with this norm.  The Reserve Bank of India should now step in and ask banks to withhold credit to companies that fail to comply with reporting requirements.........

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ICICI Bank receives RBI nod for Infrastructure Debt Fund

Leading private sector lender ICICI Bank has received an in-principle approval from the RBI to set up the country's first Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF).The fund would cater to the country's fast growing infrastructure sector, which requires investments worth $1 trillion in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012-17)...........

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You have to shell out more

...........It has been reported in the press that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to exclude the cost of stamp duty, registration fee, service tax, VAT etc., while funding house property. The National Housing Bank (NHB), the regulator for Home Finance Companies (HFCs), may follow suit soon.In other words, the home loan aspirant will have to bring in higher margin money (property cost less the loan amount), as home loan eligibility reduces considerably, from the above measures..............

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Aviation NPAs a manageable problem: Chakrabarty

Mumbai : The Reserve Bank on Friday said the stress being faced by lenders from their exposures to the aviation sector is a “manageable problem”. “Yes, aviation is a problem ... a problem, at this stage we feel is manageable,” RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. Chakrabarty declined to make account-specific comments but said RBI is keeping an eye on the developments. He also said the specially convened meeting on NPAs announced after the January 24 policy announcement, will be held either on February 29 or March 1.

IE

Kingfisher lenders to meet again mid-next week

 ...... The development comes in the backdrop of reported refusal by Mallya to stand personal guarantee for fresh funding and the lenders' insistence on the promoter brining in at least 25 percent of its funding needs as fresh equity. It may also be recalled that RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty's had on Wednesday in Bangalore that "banks are commercial entities. If they feel that by supporting a unit, the unit can survive, they must explore that possibility. Banks are risk-taking entities".......

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Govt does not admit to existence of bonded labour: Bombay HC

.... Public prosecutor Pandurang Pol informed the court that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has schemes for micro-financing of poor people, including those in rural areas. However, the same does not cover bonded labourers as one of the main conditions of lending is repayment,......

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PIL against two finance firms

.......A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here seeking a direction to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cancel licences granted to two non-banking financial companies — Muthoot Finance Company and Manappuram Finance Company — both based in Kerala on charges of levying exorbitant interest on gold loans........

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Goldmine in family silver

..........And unlike banks that have strict guidelines and need RBI’s permission for branch expansion, NBFCs are not bound by such rules for branch expansion. Muthoot Finance’s branch count as on December 2011 was 3,480 while Manappuram’s stood at 2,738. Compare this with the branch network of the decade-old Punjab National Bank that stands at 4,000 and the inequality is obvious.............

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