This is how RBI wants banks to reach smaller villages

...... RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty has been advocating for a profitable branch model of financial inclusion. According to a rough estimate, 50% of Indian populations still remain either under-banked or unbanked. "While all the efforts made for financial inclusion have expanded the access to banking services, it is important that quality services are provided through the newly set-up information and communication-based delivery model," RBI had said.

Read.............
 

RBI Monetary Policy for 2012-2013: Policy on deposit rates requires change

.....The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been de-regulating interest rates on bank deposits in bits and pieces over the last several years. While doing so, it has created an artificial divide between the rich and poor by taking an arbitrary decision in allowing banks to offer differential interest rates on deposits. In the case of fixed deposits, RBI had allowed banks to offer higher or lower than the normal interest rates for single-term deposits of Rs15 lakh and above. Again while de-regulating interest rates on SB (savings bank) accounts, the RBI once again created an arbitrary divide by stipulating that banks are free to offer different rates for SB depositors maintaining a balance in excess of Rs1 lakh in the account. The RBI has never given any rational explanation for allowing such discrimination......

Read.............

SEBI & RBI: Aren’t regulators accountable for the use mess

....An investigation began only after a change of guard at USE. As always, several directors of the USE including two former CEOs, have quit in quick succession. Meanwhile, Shyamala Gopinath, the RBI deputy governor in charge, who inaugurated all four forex-derivatives bourses, has moved on to a nice post-retirement directorship at the NSE. We believe that these openly capricious rules were all designed to help the NSE.......

Read...............

On The Turnpike - Book review by P.P.Ramchandran

THOSE LOOKING FOR A QUICK AND COMPREHENSIBLE INSIGHTS INTO THE WISDOM AND FOLLIES OF INDIAN ECONOMIC POLICY OVER THE LAST 60 YEARS WILL FIND THIS BOOK INSTRUCTIVE AND AMUSING.

TCA Srinivasa- Raghavan is a well known analyst whose columns have adorned several financial dailies. He had a role to play in Third volume of RBI History. The book under review is a ‘Coffee- Table book’ brought out by the Finance Ministry on the occasion of the Indian Economic Service completing fifty years. One must say the Ministry of Finance has put no restraint on the author......


Read...........

RBI lays down road map to make banks safer, avoid crisis repeat under Basel Committee recommendations

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has laid out a six-year road map to make Indian banks safer and avoid recurrence of the 2008 crisis, but it will need an estimated Rs 1.5 lakh crore in capital at a time it is scarce................

Read.................

Banks must maintain 7% core capital: RBI's Basel III norms

........ Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday directed Indian banks to maintain a minimum tier I capital or core capital which is equity and reserve under the final guidelines on Basel-III capital regulations. Moreover, the regulator, for the first time, asked lenders to keep a capital conservation buffer of 2.50%. "These guidelines would become effective from January 1, 2013 in a phased manner," RBI said in a statement........

Read..........

Bank deposits, advances fall through April

Bank deposits and advances fell through April, after rising sharply towards the end of the previous financial year. The growth in deposits over the year was 13.3 per cent while loans grew 17.6 per cent, as on April 20, showed data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday............

Read.............

Forget twin deficits, India has quadruplet deficits to worry about

...............Already, the latest purchasing managers’ index (PMI) print indicates that while the economy is still expanding, there are major input and output cost pressures, indicating that while the RBI did stick its neck out and cut the repo rate by a deep 50 basis points (something critics have frowned upon), there are risks associated with it since inflationary pressures are still intense. Clearly, RBI has put growth concerns above inflation this time round, and the results will have to be assessed in detail over the next few months...........................

Read...............

Kerala suicide figures in RS; action sought against bank

.....a medical college student in seventh semester in Cochin had to discontinue education after being denied loan by State Bank of India. The loan was denied under an RBI directive to banks to not to sanction loans to students admitted under management quota..................

Read............