SHYAMALA GOPINATH TO HEAD ADVISORY BOARD ON FRAUDS

Former Deputy Governor of RBI Shyamala Gopinath will now head the Advisory Board on bank, commercial and financial frauds, which looks at cases relating to state-run banks and financial institutions, referred to it by the Central Bureau of Investigation and over which the Central Vigilance Commission has oversight. Gopinath is also on the board of the NSE as a director.

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Now, chamber of commerce for rural women entrepreneurs

After successfully running a bank and a business school for rural women entrepreneurs, Mann Deshi Bank is now all set to form its own chamber of commerce at Mhaswad in Satara district, 180 km away from Pune. It is formed coordination with Mann Deshi Foundation has formed the first Mann Deshi Chamber of Commerce for Rural Women in India (MCCRW) in partnership with 'President Clinton Foundations’ initiative - Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) based in New York, USA. MCCRW is first of its kind for rural women who have been created to provide women entrepreneurs in rural areas with mentorship, knowledge, and support through policy advocacy. The chamber of commerce will organize monthly workshops for members, and eventually provide targeted support to address each member’s specific needs. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Chetana Sinha, founder chairman, Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and CEO Rekha Kulkarni in Pune.……….

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Banking Act changes to give RBI needed flexibility

……Providing the regulator with more effective control of the industry and proposing to increase penalties to crores from thousands, the Bill will provide the RBI with more flexibility in its efforts to manage liquidity and rein in inflation via the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) tool. The words 'at least three per cent' is proposed to be replaced by 'such per cent'. The Bill also empowers the RBI to grant banks such exemptions from the CRR provisions as it thinks fit. The Bill also seeks to activate the significant funds that accrue in dormant accounts by aggregating into a single fund, which can be used to promote the interests of depositors…….

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RBI Outreach Programme for Financial Inclusion held at Dungarasan, Sihori, Mehsana on 31.03.2012

Smt. Nupur Mitra, CMD, Dena Bank addressing the gathering at RBI’s Outreach Programme for Financial Inclusion held at village Dungarasan, Tal. Sihori, Dist. Banaskantha on 31.03.2012. Seen on the dias are R-L Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, Dy. Governor RBI, Shri Sudarshan Sen, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Ahmedabad; Shri K. Chandrachoodan, Banking Ombudsman, Ahmedabad and Shri Vikrambhai Gambhirji Thakore, Sarpanch, Dungarasan village

APN News

Who can lead the World Bank? : Subir Roy

..... Looking back, no modern-day Indian could have filled the role better than I G Patel. After successively heading the Department of Economic Affairs, the Reserve Bank of India and the London School of Economics, he became one of a group of wise men who were repeatedly called upon to draw the contours of a better world. Manmohan Singh, whose career ran in tandem with Patel’s, would have been a formidable nominee had he been available and younger…….

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The conundrum before RBI : A.Seshan

.... Conundrum — a hard or puzzling question; Fallacy — faulty reasoning; Paradox — a seemingly contradictory statement, even if actually well-founded; and Pandora's Box — a process which once activated will generate many unmanageable problems.

The situation before the RBI as it prepares the annual review of policy is such that all the expressions defined in the previous paragraph are found to be applicable.....

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Why Subbarao could be the loneliest man in India today

..... As S.S. Tarapore, former RBI Deputy Governor, noted: “If the RBI is to pull itself out of the quagmire it would need to raise the repo rate from its present level of 8.5 percent to 9.5 percent.” Now you know why Subbarao is a lonely man. To fight the tide of overblown expectations on a rate cut, when the macro numbers are telling him to do the opposite, he will have to hold rates. He is not going to be the most popular gent around for a while.

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Is the independence of auditors in government banks being compromised?

....However, from the year 2008-2009, the government in its wisdom granted managerial autonomy to the public sector banks to appoint their statutory auditors, by directly sourcing the names of auditors from the panel maintained by Controller & Auditor General of India (CAG) and getting it approved by the RBI, which in effect is a mere formality. However, the RBI has informed the banks that though the autonomy is given to PSBs, the norms for empanelment and remuneration of auditors shall continue to be as prescribed by it. Further, RBI has advised all PSBs to frame their own policy for appointment of statutory central/branch auditors.......

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RBI seeks economists' views as inflation worries persist

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday reiterated its concerns on inflation and a widening current account deficit in a meeting with economists a week before its annual monetary policy review, according to two economists who were there…….

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The only alternative to gold: inflation-indexed bonds

…..The Reserve Bank is now trying to put in place measures that will make it convenient for individuals to buy and sell gilts. However, this might take some time and might require the central bank to make sure that the public sector banks, which have built a fairly extensive branch network, use their distribution capacity to sell down government bonds without adding a steep bid-ask spread. There are also lessons to be learnt. The Reserve Bank had introduced in 1996 a network of small shops – called satellite dealers — to retail government bonds. The scheme had to be shut down in 2002 for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the market micro-structure was not evolved adequately to allow for retail participation……

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Nationalised banks to speed up processing of corporate loans

.....Until a few months back, large loan proposals could only be cleared in management committee meetings (MCMs) of the boards. “The MCM is convened only once in 20-30 days. Presence of the bank chairman and managing director, executive directors, RBI nominee director, Finance Ministry representative and two other directors is a must in the meeting......

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Court sets aside Paramount plea to quash IDBI order

.....Judge noted that Redressal Committee of IDBI had held that there was no merit in submission of petitioner and that IDBI should declare the company and its directors in RBI list of wilful defaulters, keeping in mind time frame indicated in orders of High Court.....

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Beyond interest rate cuts

.....Many a time the expectations from monetary policy get whittled down to expectations around reduction in policy rates and greater availability of liquidity. From a long-term perspective, the efficiency it injects in the financial sector in bringing down the cost of intermediation is important. A key contribution of monetary policy should be in promoting efficiency and bringing down the intermediation cost as well as spreads.......

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Banks’ business correspondents may get to sell micro-insurance

....The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted banks to use the services of intermediaries such as business facilitators and correspondents to provide banking services to expand the reach of the banking sector. BCs service 76,801 villages and 3,653 urban locations as of end-March 2011, according to RBI data......

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MFIN seeks RBI's intervention to enable MFIs to collect dues

Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) today sought Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) intervention to enable micro lenders to collect their Rs 7,000-crore dues, which is stagnated since November 2010 in Andhra Pradesh. "We requested the Reserve Bank to take more direct role in the dialogue with the Andhra Pradesh government. Sidbi (Small Industries Development Bank of India) has also been doing the dialogue," MFIN President Vijay Mahajan told PTI.……..

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RBI removes `1.2 lakh cr from the banking system

.....But bankers said that the cash conditions would stabilise ahead of the RBI lean season credit policy as the government begins disbursal of plan expenditure resources to the states and return of advance tax funds into the banking system......

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Oriental Bank of Commerce cuts base rate by 10 bps

......The RBI's move in the recent months to cut the cash reserve ratio has helped OBC get as much as Rs 2,000 crore released. This money was not earning any interest when it was placed with the central bank. ......

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Credit policy important for infrastructure and banking stocks: Deven Choksey

………More than the action at this point of time the beginning of the financial year, it would be the tone of RBI which would matter a lot because if they end up suggesting that they want to bring down the rate of interest over next 4 to 6 quarters by 1% to 1.5%, then in such kind of a situation, the banking stocks particularly would find lot of favour………

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Glum external sector data worry RBI

…..According to several economists who attended the customary pre-monetary policy meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday, since there was no stable source of funding the gap, the regulator was concerned that if growth did not pick up, capital flows would suffer……

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Compensate bond investors at 8% for late interest credit: RBI

"........an agency bank should compensate an investor in relief/savings bonds for financial loss due to late receipt/delayed credit of interest warrants/maturity value, at a fixed rate of 8 percent per annum," RBI said in a circular……..

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Odisha opposes RBI decision to hike rate of RIDF loans

BHUBANESWAR: Strongly opposing the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent decision of enhancing the rate of interest over RIDF loans by the NABARD, Odisha government today asked the Centre not to implement the new interest on loans sanctioned prior to April 2012………………

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