Walk the extra mile to become employable, students told

Success Mantra

.......“There is no substitute for hard work,” Chief General Manager in-charge, Reserve Bank of India, G. Jagan Mohan Rao, said and called upon the students to have confidence in their capabilities. He explained the working of the Reserve Bank and the money markets. “There is nothing wrong in changing jobs for money, and there is no real loyalty to the employer. But, what is required is loyalty to the job on hand. Do it and properly,” he emphasised.......

Read - The Hindu

All well that ends cell

Discussion: U Subbarao (second from l) talking to people outside her bungalow

......A few minutes later, a car stopped outside the high, black gates of the bungalow, with Dr D Subbarao’s wife, U Subbarao in the backseat. The car went into the driveway and then U Subbarao stepped out and walked outside, as she saw the gathered residents requesting her for an interaction. She heard the residents and said she would enquire about the tower; she had no idea that it was being installed. “I assure you something will be done,” she said, allaying fears. She said she would check with certain persons and said that, “Though I am not RBI and not making a commitment I will speak to the people concerned. It takes two hours to dismantle the tower, I am told,” she said graciously. U Subbarao also reassured the women, saying, “Ladies, I am not protesting at all, I am going to find out.” By then, there was a warm, neighbourly feeling permeating that air........

Read - Mid-Day

City boys win RBI’s all-India quiz

RBI Governor D Subbarao presenting the prize to Surya Girish and Siddharth M Joy of Chinmaya Vidyalaya HSS, Vazhuthacaud, the winners of RBIQ 

Surya Girish and Siddharth M Joy of Chinmaya Vidyalaya HSS, Vazhuthacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, are the winners of the RBIQ, an all-India inter-school quiz organised by the Reserve Bank of India. Tanmay Kakati and Shreyas Sarkar of Maharishi Vidyamandir Public School of Guwahati are the runners-up.The finals of RBIQ were held in National Library, Kolkata............

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

RBI to take steps to address liquidity deficit: Gokarn

........"Whatever causes it, whether due to political developments or global developments, rupee depreciation contributes to inflation – particularly through its impact on unavoidable imports like oil. So, that concerns remain and it is not something we refuse to acknowledge. We hope that things stabilise both on domestic and global fronts where rupee finds some stability,".......

Read - BS

Signature variation

The Supreme Court has decided that a person may face criminal proceedings — jail and fine of hefty amount — if a cheque issued by him/her gets dishonoured on the ground that the signature does not match the specimen signature available with the bank. With due respect to the apex court, this decision must be reconsidered as the signatures of many senior citizens vary over a very short period of time because of health reasons. Whenever the signature is not as per the specimen, the account holder can be called by the branch manager to provide a new specimen signature. Customers can give their phone number on the reverse of the cheque and if the signature does not tally, he can be asked over phone to confirm if he issued that cheque. The cheque can be held back and cleared a day or two later, after getting this confirmation. Although the apex court’s intention to prevent fraud is laudable, this step will cause more trouble to senior citizens.

- M. Kumar, New Delhi (HBL)

CID trains cops to fight financial frauds

.....Private hotels in Ranchi host meetings of various NBFCs almost every day. Most of them are non-descript and are not registered with RBI. The government also does not have any data on the existence of such NBFCs. General Manager, department of non-banking supervision and foreign exchange, Aditya Kishwar, said the NBFCs were mushrooming in every lane and alley. "I had come across more than a dozen such companies during a visit to Godda district recently," he added. Citing case studies, an RBI official said an NBFC was offering LED television worth Rs 20,000 to its customers after they deposited Rs 500 to them for two years........

Read - TOI

Niche lending

.....One must remember that NBFCs like HDFC, Sundaram Finance, Shriram Transport and Manappuram have thrived all these years largely because of their acumen in spotting and delivering niche credit services to borrowers ignored or neglected by commercial banks. They built a profitable business from extending home loans to the middle class, truck financing, SME loans and gold loans on the basis of knowing their borrowers thoroughly and assessing their risk profile more efficiently than banks could. But with these segments today over-run by competition from banks, the NBFCs should carve out new lucrative niches to lend – not difficult in a chronically under-banked market like India. The RBI, too, needs to play a more facilitative role here. The time is ripe, perhaps, to implement the Usha Thorat Committee’s report of August 2011, which suggested that RBI shouldn’t actively regulate smaller NBFCs that don’t raise public funds. The recommendations of allowing NBFC branches to function as banking correspondents and permitting them to use the SARFAESI Act’s provisions for loan recoveries are also worth considering......

Read - HBL

India has not scored well on financial inclusion of the poor, says RBI Deputy Governor

.........Accepting that the country has not scored well on financial inclusion parameters, Dr. Chakrabarty, who is also the Chairperson of the RBI High-Power Committee on Financial Inclusion, expressed a greater need for mainstreaming financial inclusion to facilitate access of the poor to financial services. Addressing the gathering after hearing the testimonies of activists and workers about their problems in delivering credit, safeguarding savings, ensuring insurance and pension and the issues of savings, loan and remittances, the RBI Deputy Governor described the process of financial exclusion as lack of access by citizens to appropriate low cost, fair and safe financial products and services from mainstream providers..........

Read - The Hindu

‘Group banking is ideal for migrant workers’

......Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, K C Chakrabarty said “there are 10 crore people attached to banks linked with RBI. With 90 thousand branches and 50 lakh transactions taking place every day, issues may arise in case of individual migrant worker opening of bank account.”.........

Read - DH

Need to rethink priority sector lending

.........The significant aspect is the high levels of NPAs, which, at the level of rural development banks, is quite disastrous. Clearly, the business model does not work well at this level. The recovery ratios are also quite low and vary between 39.4% for PACs to 91.8% for SCBs. Given that these loans are directed mainly to farm-based borrowers, the problem is actually with the sector rather than the banks. Two questions may be posed here. The first is whether the concept of priority sector lending is anachronistic in a regime where banks are answerable to their shareholders and adhere to prudential norms relating to bad assets and capital. Forcing banks to lend in areas where the probability of assets turning bad is higher may not be right. One reason why foreign banks do better is that they have less exposure to this segment........

Read - FE

RBI tells investors to buy inflation-linked bonds instead of gold

.......Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, said high gold imports were weighing on the country's current account deficit and suggested investors shift their investments to bonds that provide a hedge against inflation.  "Inflation-indexed bonds could also be another option to offer investors inflation-linked returns and detract them from gold investments," Mohanty said in a speech released on Friday............

Read - ET

There is some macroeconomic cyclical influence on NPAs: Gokarn

KOLKATA, DEC 7: 

Dr Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, on Friday said there is some macroeconomic cyclical influence on the pattern of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Indian banking system. However, the NPAs would start fading once the business cycles start to turn. “Clearly there is some macroeconomic cyclical influence on the pattern of NPAs. But as the business cycle starts to turn that should fade away,” he said while speaking at a leadership summit organised by the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre for Excellence here today.............

Read - HBL

'RBI considering comments on bk exposure norms to grp cos'

T

he Reserve Bank is examining the comments from stakeholders to firm up norms including on the issue of providing capital by the banks to their subsidiaries, the government said. "The RBI is presently considering the comments received from the stakeholders to finalise the norms that also include the issue of providing capital by banks to their subsidiaries," the Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in written reply to the Lok Sabha........

Read.........

RBI raises concerns on widening CAD

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised concerns on the widening Current Account Deficit (CAD) of India as the central bank feels that the current level of CAD is far above the the level sustainable for India. “As per estimates, at a nominal growth rate of about 13%, the sustainable current account to GDP ratio is 2.3%. Reserve Bank’s own research shows that economy can sustain CAD of about 2.5% of GDP under a scenario of slower growth,” said Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director, RBI in his speech at an event in Bhubaneswar..........

Read - BS

Moody’s, and Indian banking blues

...........Notwithstanding the explicit sovereign guarantee to the domestic banking industry that “it is too big to fail’ when the chips are down, the fact remains that the rating agency has sounded the bugle of caution to the authorities in general and to the banking industry in particular, that a business-as-usual approach will not do. That is also the reason why the apex bank has said in its annual banking document that “distress dependencies among banks have risen, warranting closer monitoring”. How far the RBI cracks the whip to ensure sound financial practices in the coming days will be watched and welcomed.

Read - HBL

Make banks loosen the purse strings, CM tells RBI chief

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday conveyed her concern to RBI governor D Subbarao over the paucity of loans granted to people in rural Bengal. Subbarao was at Writers’ Buildings on a courtesy visit. “Although it was a courtesy call, the CM took up with him several issues including loans to small traders, small and medium enterprises and self-help groups as also the state’s credit-deposit ratio. The RBI chief accepted her contention,” finance minister Amit Mitra said...........

Read - The Bengal Post

Sebi seeks Sahara account details from banks, help from RBI

......Meena said Sebi has written to “Nabard, Enforcement Directorate, Central Economic Intelligence Committee, RBI and Financial Intelligence requesting them to share with Sebi any material/information in their possession about the Sahara group of companies, more particularly SIRECL and SHICL”. He added, “They were also requested to examine or inquire any possible violation of the provisions of law falling under their jurisdiction and share with Sebi the outcome of such examination/inquiry.”...........

Read - BS

Muthoot Fin gets shareholder nod for white label ATMs

Gold loan NBFC Muthoot Finance has received shareholder approval to set up white label automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country. RBI has permitted non-banking entities to set up and run ATMs known as white label ATMs due to the lower presence of banks and ATMs in tier-II and tier-III cities. In terms of existing regulations, only banks are permitted by RBI to set ATMs as extended delivery channels...........

Read - FE

Govt working to exempt failing bank M&As from CCI purview

..............Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India had made a case for exempting banking sector mergers from the CCI purview arguing that the CCI may not be well equipped to handle bank M&As. However, a Group of Ministers chaired by finance minister P Chidambaram, ruled out blanket exemptions to any sector. The GoM decided that any sector wanting an exemption should make a case to the CCI under Section 54..............

Read - IE

Money for your Foreign Trip

Read - Moneylife