‘All subsidies through electronic mode soon’

RBI official calls for night schools for farmers to help them attain financial literacy

Reserve Bank of India Regional Director A.S. Rao on Friday exhorted people of Sivarampuram, a Financial Inclusion (FI) village of the Syndicate Bank's Tallur branch, to prepare themselves for electronic transfer of all subsidies in the future. Reviewing the progress of the RBI's outreach programme in the sleepy village, he said “We are keen on restricting the use of cheques in view of the scope for their misuse and encouraging in their place electronic transactions. With the click of the mouse, all subsidies by the Union and the State governments will be made through electronic mode soon.”...............

Read - The Hindu

RBI: wake up, smell the coffee

.....If that is the reality, and it is, and RBI still persists in citing food inflation as a cause for it not cutting rates, then it would be yet another illogical chink in RBI’s armour. And to be consistently inconsistent, it should raise repo rates in its fight against food inflation. And RBI should offer at least an obfuscation as to why its concerted hiking of interest rates has resulted in a zero impact on CPI inflation, and why it expects “this time to be different”...........

Read - FE

Lend a big hand, RBI

There has rarely been a more apposite hour for Duvvuri Subbarao to do more than the due. Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Friday it will be difficult for the government to meet revenue projections due to the economic slowdown, which, it said, risks India’s credit rating. Now that’s one more reason why the RBI must change its discourse and plump for growth..........

Read - DNA

Subbarao on the Economy, With Interesting Graphs

Some of the best inferences to future macroeconomic policies are hidden inside the speeches made by key RBI personnel. On March 13, just a day prior to the release of the Feb inflation number, RBI Governor D. Subbarao presented at the London School of Economics. Some notes and takeaways.........

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Conflicting signals on rate cut: who's saying what

Next week, the entire focus would be on what Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao does in the review meet on Tuesday, March 19. Though there is confusion about the outcome, it appears that a rate cut is imminent.........

Read | Business Standard

RBI needs to strengthen its balancesheet: Report

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest currency and finance report raised several issues that directly conflict with the government's position. Firstly, the RBI has argued that it needs to set aside more reserves to strengthen its balance-sheet and support its market intervention. Secondly, it argues that an independent debt management office at the current juncture of high deficit may be a bad idea. The report on currency and finance is basically a report that is brought out by RBI staff belonging to the Department of Economic and Policy Research. So, in that sense it is not a voice of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or what RBI stands for..........

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Wage Revision in Banking Sector

......The advantages of a delayed settlement for institutions is buying some time to actually make the enhanced payments and for the trade unions, the comfort of collecting a higher amount of levy from the higher amounts of arrears that will be received by employees. The wage settlement for the current period (November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2017) is likely to be different from the above pattern, as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stepped in, to ask public sector banks to start make adequate provisioning against liabilities the banks will have to meet on account of wage revision from November 1, 2012 from January-March, 2013 quarter and IBA has almost committed to reach an agreement with unions on wage revision by March 2014. This is a move in the right direction.............

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Govt to introduce new ITR form this month

The government will introduce new forms for filing of income tax returns for the assessment year 2013- 14 by the end of this month, Minister of State for Finance S. S. Palanimanickam informed the Lok Sabha. He said the new Income Tax Return ( ITR) form would incorporate the changes introduced in the income tax norms.......

Read - FPJ

Rs 52,000-cr farm loan waiver: Govt, RBI seek report from banks

The Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of India have asked banks to submit a report on the Rs 52,000-crore agricultural relief and debt waiver scheme, 2008............

Read - HBL

Cobrapost money-laundering sting on HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank - full report

.......It took a single reporter equipped with a low-end hidden camera, to unearth these endemic money laundering practices in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank: by merely posing as a walk-in customer wanting to launder huge sums of cash for a politician. The interactions between officials of the banks and the reporter clearly brings out the connivance of senior management of these banks in facilitating money laundering and other illegal transactions..........

Read - IE

Black money: pvt banks warn staff of zero tolerance

.....Cobrapost had claimed that its undercover investigation revealed that top three private banks offered money laundering as product to their customers and violated several provisions of the Income Tax Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act and regulations mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While bankers claim that employees are advised not to violate norms at periodic intervals, a fresh set of communication mandating strict adherence to compliance were sent after Cobrapost's allegations on Thursday.......

Read | Business Standard

Will take firm action if needed: Govt on Cobrapost expose

.......On the basis of the preliminary information I have, it showed that this sting has been carried out at various locations by the Cobrapost in different parts, I think different states, different branches and so on. It was pretty explicit from what I saw in passing. So, prima-facie appeared little serious. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has got into the act immediately, we have got into the act, we are trying to collect more information. The banks have been contacted by my department as well and the RBI has also contacted them. Unfortunately the Governor and the Deputy Governor both were out of the country. I have spoken to the other Deputy Governors, he spoke to the CGM concerned, the executive directors and they are all on the job............

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Money-laundering charge: RBI officers to examine transactions

The Reserve Bank of India plans to send officers from its regional offices to scrutinise transactions at those branches of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank where an online magazine captured on camera branch staff allegedly offering to convert clients’ black money into white.............

Read - HBL

ICICI suspends 18; Axis removes tainted staff from key roles

"ICICI Bank has suspended 18 employees, pending enquiry," the bank's spokesperson said. The largest private sector lender in the country has also constituted a high-level inquiry committee, to report in two weeks. Axis Bank has removed employees said to have been involved in the racket from operational roles, pending enquiry, and relocated them to the bank's administrative office, sources said..........

Read | Business Standard

Why the Cobra’s sting will not poison any of the banks

If there is one prediction one can make about the CobraPost sting that exposed HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank managers as being more than willing to help people launder money, it is this: after everything is said and done, more will be said than done. A few low-level bank officials may be hauled over the coals, but the banks themselves will get away scot-free. Consider what the government and the RBI have said so far in what appears to be an open-and-shut case, ............

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10 things that the CobraPost sting tells us about banks

.............. what the sting clearly tells us is that everybody who pays income tax in this country is basically an idiot who is being taken for a royal ride. If you have a lot of black money and you are not paying tax on it, chances are somebody out there is waiting for you with a red carpet...........

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Money-laundering probe: RBI to see Cobrapost video clips on bank 'frauds'

Intensifying its probe into charges of alleged money-laundering by banks, the Reserve Bank has decided to study video clips that show bank staff encouraging tax evasion and overseas remittances. The investigation will focus on the possible violation of KYC norms even as banks are independently probing any fraud by their staff, said three persons familiar the development............

Read - ET

Is RBI to be Blamed for Money Laundering by ICICI, HDFC and Axis Banks?

.........If the allegations turns out true, the private sector banks would be under the scanner as they could have approached RBI for funds instead of indulging in illegal activities. In the meantime, the RBI should also be blamed as it holds control over all the scheduled banks being the supreme banking authority of the country. It holds the cash reserves of all the scheduled banks; controls the credit operations and banking system through licensing and inspection; and acts as bankers' bank by lending money in times of crisis.........

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And thus great institutions are born

........IFMR Trust, which works in other areas of finance as well, has a separate arm for Rural Financial Inclusion.  That’s the term that best suits what they do, for they are not a bank, they are not a micro-finance institution, they are not money-lenders in the conventional sense, but they offer several of these products and services to their constituents............

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(This link has been sent by Shri Balasubramanian Krishnamurthy for the readers of VITALINFO)

FinMin’s two faces: One unit wants to penalise while the other believes in incentives for the same goal!

........Last month, while speaking at a seminar on “Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures and Innovations in Retail Payment Systems”, Harun R Khan, Deputy Governor, RBI said, “Although, the recent financial crisis did not show any strong evidence of correlation between payment systems and financial stability, going forward, payment systems, both large value and retail, could be the source of instability when the financial transactions moves largely to electronic mode that gives rise to several operational and financial risks.” .......

Read - Moneylife

RBI asks banks to issue debit, credit cards with photo

NEW DELHI: Banks have been advised by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consider issuing debit and credit cards with photographs of the cardholders to prevent misuse of stolen cards, the Lok Sabha was informed today.......

Read - TOI

APGVB opens 135 ultra small branches

..............“We have set a target of opening another 400 USBs during next fiscal and decided to convert at least 50 USBs into full-pledged brick and mortar branches,”...........

Read - HBL