He steered the CAB during the tough days ...............

Sad demise of Shri S. K. Newlay is indeed a loss to the family and friends alike. He was a soft spoken and well mannered person with good reputation. He steered the CAB during the tough days of the CAB, when the news of its likely merger with NABARD was in the air. Entire former and present staff owe their present status to him. I had the opportunity of working with him in Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and meeting at CAB, Pune. I join Shri Deole, friends and other colleagues in praying God for his peaceful Heavenly abode.

- K R P Rao, DGM, RBI, Bhubaneswar

Debt mgmt Bill likely soon

Finance ministry wants RBI’s role in the job scrapped to avoid conflict of interest

...... Initially, RBI was against shifting the DMO to the finance ministry because of human resources and manpower issues. The ministry assured all 21 public debt offices of RBI would continue to function as they were doing on Tuesday, but would function at the behest of DMO.

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Budget 2012: Govt to bring legislation to set up of Debt Management Office

............ The government has proposed to set up an independent DMO, aimed at separating the RBI's roles as the as the decider of interest rate in the market and being the banker to the government. At present, both the government's debt and fresh borrowings are managed by the central bank..............
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RBI outsources temple safe project

........ Top sources told TOI that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which was entrusted with the task of constructing the safe lockers for the temple has outsourced the work to Godrej industries' security solutions unit which is part of Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd. On Tuesday, Vikas Verma, Manager Protocol and Security (RBI, Guwahati), and a member of the expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court to assess the wealth of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, made a presentation on the proposed new vault to the expert committee. According to sources, the presentation was incomplete as the Vasthu Sastra for constructing the vault was not taken into account. Vasthuvidya Gurukulam at Aranmula has been entrusted with the job of fine tuning the vasthu angle of the RBI's project plan to build the vault.......

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STUDY ON ICT BASED FINANCIAL INCLUSION THROUGH BC – IMPEDIMENTS & CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

Shri.L.M.Ganesan, Member of Faculty, College of Agricultural Banking, Pune has conducted the captioned study from August 22-27, 2011. Copy of the study report was placed in the Meeting of College Advisory Committee held on November 5, 2011. The study was conducted in two villages of Maharashtra State, Khopi in Pune and Lingnoor Kapashi in Kolhapur districts, through on-site field visits and questionnaire method. Feedback from all the stake holders including 200 households and District Collectors were collected. Questionnaire for households was made bilingual in local language and English. The study report contains the major findings, both positive and negative, five major issues and ten important suggestions. The study captured various field level problems, ranging from delay in the appointment of BC /CSP, enrolment, supply of HHD by TSP, issue of smart cards, dormant no frills accounts, to non-linking of bank’s CBS with TSP’s FI server, low remuneration to CSPs, lack of financial education and other system related problems. Banks which have opted for Corporate BC model and banks which opted for non-corporate BC model can mutually share their positive experience for mutual enrichment and fine tune their systems and procedures for achieving a realistic financial inclusion. The study finally concluded that it is now time for banks to act seriously, implement financial inclusion realistically and then report the progress accordingly. The study report is hosted in the Website of CAB, Pune under ICT Based Financial Inclusion.......

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B Mahapatra : Implications of Basel III for capital, liquidity and profitability of banks

Address of Mr B Mahapatra, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India at the National Conference on emerging Macro Environment, Regulatory Changes and Bank Competitiveness, organised by the National Institute of Bank Management, Pune – 3 March 2012

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RBI asks urban co-op banks to get ready for IFRS

The Reserve Bank today asked urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to take necessary steps to ensure smooth transition to new international accounting norms IFRS from April 2014. "UCBs are advised to take necessary steps to ensure that they are in readiness to adopt to IFRS convergence IAS from April 1, 2013, or April 1, 2014, as the case my be," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a notification. It said that banks and NBFCs should upgrade their skills, manage information system and technology capabilities for smooth transition to new financial reporting standards to manage complexities and challenges of international standards. According to a roadmap of the Corporate Affairs Ministry, all large commmercial scheduled banks are mandated to prepare their books of accounts according to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from April 1, 2013. Besides, smaller urban cooperative banks and non-banking finance companies are to converge their opening balance sheets with IFRS from April 1, 2014. 

BS

Cyber criminals use name of RBI, Toyota to cheat

Mohit of Dhurwa in Ranchi was unaware about the devastation when he showed trust on the institution such as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before making available his hard earned money amounting Rs60,000 to a fraud firm. The cheat, hoodwinking under the financial regulator of the country, duped the student by asking his banking details before netting him as a beneficiary of “lottery/inheritance/unpaid contract funds/ undelivered Lottery fund”, amounting 500,000 GBP.................

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Bank problems? Approach the Banking Ombudsman it helps

Banking customers continue to run from pillar to post to resolve their grievances, however, many of them fail to approach the Banking Ombudsman, who over the last year has ruled in customers’ favour on several occasions. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report on Banking Ombudsman (BO), during 2010-2011, total number of cases registered with the BO fell by 10% to 71,274 cases from 79,266 cases a year ago. ................

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Short on vision, long on rhetoric

....Fortunately we have the Reserve Bank of India and its economic reviews that perhaps despite itself, hone in on the real problems, those tangible limits that will keep growth hemmed in to an average of around 7 per cent at the very best........

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White label ATMs proposed by RBI— need to make them safe and user friendly

.....More than anything else, the RBI should not lose sight of the most important aspect of inherent risks involved in allowing private entities to set up, own and operate WLAs as there is a distinct difference in attitude between banks and the private parties in owning and operating ATMs. Banks today look upon ATMs as a service to their customers and not as income generating activity per se, and take enough care to protect the interest of their customers with a view to protect their own image. All over the world ATMs are the cause of a large number of bank frauds, and India will be no different, more so when the nameless WLAs are installed, where the emphasis will naturally be on generating more income and protecting the interest of the user may receive secondary importance......

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Airtel money enrolls 50,000 subscribers within first 10 days

....“With this, customers can now use airtel money to make payments and transfer money across the country,” he said. The company said customers could choose from two airtel money accounts: express and power accounts. As per the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval, the former has a daily spending limit of Rs 10,000 and the latter Rs 50,000. The company charges Rs 5 for transaction up to Rs 500, and above that, Rs 10, said Menon........

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Is it time to cut interest rates?

“While inflation is less of a worry than it was in, say, October 2011, monetary policy should take a futuristic view of expected inflation before releasing the pressure”

Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, CARE Ratings

“It is important to reverse (or at least stall) the process of the current sequential fall in ‘trend growth’, which is inimical to long-run growth prospects”

Shubhada M Rao, President & Chief Economist, YES Bank

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RBI Official: India Faces Stagflation Risks

………"We have only one actor in the economy who is trying to combat inflation, namely the RBI," said Ms. Rajaraman. "We need the other hand to do the clapping, and that is fiscal policy." Ms. Rajaraman's comments add to the growing voices urging the government to cut its deficit. The government bridges the deficit with market borrowing, crowding out private borrowers.……………

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Tripura to act against NBFIs

AGARTALA, March 6 – Alarmed at the mushrooming of Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFIs) in Tripura, the State Government has urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to seek State’s views while clearing license for such business, the Assembly was informed here on Tuesday……….

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Setting a rupee band : Abheek Barua

…..One way to do this would be for the RBI to work with a band for the exchange rate that it would be comfortable with. (It need not necessarily share this with the market.) If the rupee-dollar pair crosses the upper end of this band (that is, depreciates beyond this), the RBI should sell dollars. Conversely, if it falls below the band, it could buy dollars. There is no need to have a rigid band — it could change over time as market conditions change. What is important is the principle…….

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Federal Bank cuts base rate by 10 bps

Federal Bank has become the country’s first private sector lender to cut its base rate, or the minimum lending rate, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) changed its stance on monetary tightening last year. The Kerala-based bank cut its base rate by 10 basis points to 10.65 per cent. The new rate is effective from yesterday........

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Federal Bank to open 100 branches

Kerala based Federal Bank on Tuesday announced that it would open 100 new branches and hire 2,000 people. All the 100 branches will be opened at one go on Saturday to take the total network size to 935, executive director of the bank, a Mr Abraham Chacko, told reporters here adding that majority of the branches will be opened outside Kerala.........

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Spandana hopes to better business in FY13, plans to take smaller MFIs’ loan portfolios

....Meanwhile, along with other MFIs, the company would now face another hurdle if the Reserve Bank sticks to its provisioning norms, for arrear periods between 180 and 720 days. Where as, SKS Microfinance has already written off altogether Rs 760 crore until December ended quarter this fiscal........

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