Monday, June 24, 2013

RBI’s monetary policy stance apt in current economic milieu - T.V.Gopalakrishnan

..............Prudence demands that the RBI does not overlook these ground realities and go in for a reduction in policy rates to suit the sentiments of the market or expectations of some segments in the economy. The RBI’s concerns can be well gauged from the policy statement, where it categorically observed that “while several measures have been taken to contain the current account deficit, there is an urgent need to be vigilant about the global uncertainty, the rapid shift in risk perceptions and its impact on capital flows.”............

Waiting for Godot

..........It was only two weeks ago that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new favourite, Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Raghuram Rajan, reassured the public that the persistent fall in the value of the rupee was an aberration which would soon get corrected. Insiders within North Block say that Rajan is the PMO's favoured candidate to take over from RBI Governor D. Subbarao when that worthy finally bids goodbye to the central bank in a few months time, after having caused a steep slowdown in growth through a restrictive monetary policy.............

A new independence

For the first 40 years after Independence, the regulation of the Indian economy was by departments of the government. The exception was the Reserve Bank of India. It was created in 1935 as the apex monetary authority to regulate currency and finance. However, it worked closely with the Central government. Independent views and policies occurred only under governors who were strong personalities....................

RBI easing KYC norms to remove hurdles in opening new bank accounts

..............The Reserve Bank of India is looking to remove hurdles faced by customers in opening new bank accounts. In its bid to make the process hassle-free, a team of senior officials from the RBI, including its Executive Director B. Mahapatra, Regional Director, Sadakkatadulla and the Banking Ombudsman Sujatha E. Prasad, were in the city to seek suggestions from the public. Coimbatore is the second city for the visiting team...........

Other safeguards for RBI

......Households have increasingly shifted from cash to credit cards (a form of credit line). Commercial banks rely primarily on the central bank as the lender of last resort (an implicit credit line). It is only central banks that rely primarily on reserves rather than on credit lines. It is high time they modernised as well...........

SBP holds BCSBI meet at Patiala


Bank officials frown at writing on the notes

.....................In the last fiscal, the RBI detected 35,000 pieces of counterfeit notes in the State. Officials of RBI, Chennai region, said that they discourage scribbling on the currency notes as it reduces the life of the note and obstructs detection of forgery. It is against the RBI’s clean note policy. Notes with political and religious messages will lose exchange value. “We have received complaints about various government departments indulging in such practices. We write to the head of the departments such as BSNL and India Post advising them to stop the practice,” said an official. The RBI recently trained staff of BSNL and police on detection of fake currency notes. For complaints and training programmes, RBI can be reached at 044-25362041 or at rdchennai@rbi.org.in. 

My View on 'Executive' appreciation for VITALINFO...................




Dear Mangesh,
Hearty congratulations. You richly deserve the appreciation. I am happy that Deepali has chosen to convey her appreciation to you in writing.
– A.Chandramouliswaran, Former Executive Director
Congrats. Many are benefited reading VITALINFO daily. It also gets widely circulated among bankers, professionals and academicians. Keep it up.
– Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan, Ex- CGM

Congrats Mangesh. Keep up the good work. All the best.
Kishore Savkur, Ex-Chief General Manager

A truly well-deserved accolade from RBI's Executive Director. To that add that here is one from a septuagenarian retiree.
Every morning we look forward eagerly to VITALINFO. It reaches the nook and cranny of Indian Banking world and feeds us effortlessly all the developments. We can do without the Pink Dragons but cannot afford to miss VITALINFO. I learnt from VITALINFO of a theft in RBI Santacruz Quarters. Even my friends staying in Quarters did not know! What is more admirable is that it is all one man's effort. Long Live my good friend Mangesh Tarambale and May his daily grow from strength to strength.
- P P Ramachandran (PPR), Ex-DGM

Congratulations for your sincere efforts for use of all of us and appreciation received from our ED.
– V.P.Arya, Ex-General Manager

Congratulations ! Excellent.
– Sandip Ghose, Ex-CGM-in-Charge
Hearty congratulations Dear Shri Mangesh ji.
- JRP Ratnarao, Ex-CGM

Deepali deserves a word of gratitude for expressing her appreciation of the effort Mangesh is putting in to put together VITALINFO and ensuring that the mail reaches us early morning everyday. Many of us have started expecting timely arrival of VITALINFO, sometimes forgetting that it is just an individual's hard work in the early morning that creates VITALINFO and there is no back office support for Mangesh.
- M G Warrier, Ex-General Manager

Congrats!! Please keep it up –  
- M O Sebastian, Ex-General Manager

Dear Mangesh
Heartiest greetings to you for receiving appreciation for the wonderful work done by you. We all the members of EXRBITES Group, join Mrs. Deepali Pant Joshi in congratulating you for the hard work you are putting up single handedly day in and day out.  I would like to assure you that half of our members are starting their day with VITALINFO.  Please keep it up.
– Madan Gauria, Moderator, EXRBITES Group

Dear Mangesh Sir,
At least, I for one, look for your 'VITALINFO' as one of the most important messages in the site. It is indeed yeoman's service that you are doing to the fraternity, Sir. Certainly you deserve appreciation from the Bank. We all join Shri. Madan Sir to congratulate you on the occasion. Hope you will continue to provide such vital information to the EXRBITES.
- S. I. QUADRI, ASST. MANAGER, HRMD, RBI, BANGALORE

I am very happy to read that your work has been appreciated by the Executive Director of our Reserve Bank. I give my hearty congratulations to you on your receiving the certificate of appreciation from the top officer of the Bank. You have been doing a tremendous work and providing us instant information regarding bank and banking industry every morning. Wish you all the best.
- R K Gujar, Ex-Private Secretary

CONGRATULATIONS ! Best wishes and regards,
- C S R Nair

Dear Shri Mangesh Tarambale,
Hearty congratulations on your receiving the well deserved appreciation from RBI. It is a relentless service. Kindly keep it up. with best wishes and regards,
- Rang Pal Gupta, Jammu

Dear Shri Mangesh Tarambale,
Hearty congratulations on your receiving the well deserved appreciation from RBI. It is a relentless service.
- Vathsala Jayaraman

Appreciation well deserved-RBI can simply adopt Sri Tarambale's mail for their MI desk. With humble regards
- Badri

Congratulations
– K. Ramamoorthy

DEAR MANGESH, CONGRATULATION
– J.C.Khurana

Dear Sir, I am very happy that your useful contribution to RBI fraternity has been appreciated by ED Ms Deepali Pant Joshi. Congratulations.  
- Sarveswara

Hearty congratulations. May God bless.
- Ramanath Nakhate, Ex-DGM

Congratulations for receiving the appreciations from the Working Executive of the Bank. Such appreciations would go long way in working with great spirit.
- K R P Rao, Ex-General Manager
My heartiest congratulations. You are just excellent.
- Dr. Ashutosh Raravikar, Assistant Adviser, DEPR

Dear Mangesh Good Morning, Hearty Congratulations.  Keep it up.  
- Rajendra Shringarpure, PS to Deputy Governor (KCC)
Great compliment.  Congratulations. 
- Vyankatesh Dange, PS, DEPR

Congratulations sir Keep it up
– N.P.Bhingarkar, Pharmacist

Dear Tarambale, Congratulations !!!  You really deserve this appreciation for your efforts.
- Lathika Pillai, Private Secretary

Mangeshji, Really nice on her part to go such a great length to send a letter like that. Needless to say it is richly deserved.
- Manas Mohanty, General Manager/MoF, CAB

Congratulations and all the best.  Regards.
– Jyoti Kumar Pandey, General Manager, Kolkata

Really great. Congratulations.
– Sundar Murthy, AGM/MoF, CAB

Dear Tarambalejee,
CONGRATULATIONS. This is one more feather in your cap. Is any space left to accommodate this feather? Please increase the size of your cap because many feathers will come in future.
- Prakash Joshi, AGM (Tech), Ahmedabad

Excellent
– S.S.Sapre, AM, CAB

Dear Tarambale Sahab,
I am so happy to note that your efforts have been recognized and complimented at the highest level. I have said so on numerous occasions. Please keep up the good work.
- Yashpal, P & SO

U deserve it.
– Sushama Dhawde, PS

Congrats.
– S.Kulkarni, AM, HRMD

Great ! Congratulations………..
– Amin Anand, PS

Congrates, our Top Management is appreciating your work by doing good things for all of them.
- C.B. Paunikar, PS to RD, Nagpur

Kudos Mangesh ji.. Way to go!!... Rgds,
- V.G.Sekar, General Manager, Jaipur

Congratulations and keep it up.
- Smt. Bharati Bhide, Manager, CAB

Congrats. All the best for all your noble ,selfless future endeavours.
 – Snehalata Joshi, AM, CAB

Congratulations Dear Tarambale. First mail we see in the morning is VITALINFO.
- A U Shaikh

Congratulations on receiving appreciation from RBI for you commendable work.

- Subhash Chandra

A brief history of the evolution of the State Bank of Pakistan

..........This eventually led to the merger of the three Presidency Banks into the Imperial Bank of India in 1920. The Imperial Bank of India was proposed as an institution with overall – as opposed to territorial – presence in India. From its inception, the Imperial Bank of India had the status of a quasi-central bank, which undertook banking functions and managed the rupee debt of the government until the formation of the RBI in 1935. After the creation of RBI, the Imperial Bank acted as its agent – a structure still followed after the partition of India, before the State Bank of Pakistan was finally formed in 1948.

SBI to hire 10,000 officers, employees in current fiscal

........."We will be hiring 10,000 people this year, including 1,500 probationary officers, the process for which started in April. About 7,500 will be retiring this fiscal," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said. "We have upgraded our branches, all have become air-conditioned. We have adequately staffed our branches. In the last quarter, we recruited 20,000 assistant grade employees at front office,"....................

Retirement savings seminar: Be prepared for the unknowns

.....While saving for retirement, one needs to be prepared for the six unknowns—under-investment risk, the risk of longevity, failure to account for sudden spikes in monthly expenses, the dominance of a non-income-generating asset like real estate in the portfolios, low growth of assets and post-retirement support...................

Maha to get 15,000 micro-ATMs from Centre for rural inclusion


In order to facilitate financial inclusion of people from remote areas in the state, Maharashtra will get around 15,000 micro-ATMs from Centre. Moreover, as many as 20,000 Business Correspondents (BCs) will be appointed for the purpose of taking banking to the doorstep of the people in remote areas by allowing them to do transactions at Point of Sale or PoS (the micro ATM)......


EDB Becomes First Regional Bank To Launch KCC-ATM Cards

Ellaquai Dehati Bank (EDB) became the first regional bank of the State to launch KCC-ATM and ATM RuPay Debit Card. Launching the card, Shri Farooq Ahmad Shah, District Development Commissioner Srinagar appreciated the role played by the bank in the economic development of the State.........

Banks start counting losses

Leading public sector bnks, particularly State Bank of India, are staring at a substantial loss of business in flood-affected Uttarakhand. Worse, they would face problems in recovering existing loans due to the damage caused to the properties in the region. ................

The success behind the great Arun Panchariya

.....In 1998, he joined Panchariya Gin Pvt. Ltd. where he got experience of the ginning industry. After an efficient management of trading business, he started a better focus on the industry of finance and banking. He used to handle audits of Reserve Bank of India and meanwhile, he learned all the banking policies, and attended a number of seminars to keep himself updated with the latest things happening in the banking industry. Up to this point, Arun had about 20 years of rigorous and exhaustive experience in the field of services of finance which undertake all kinds of retail, Investment and Private banking........

New RBI sub-section to boost credit flow to residential projects

......In case the FSI of the commercial area in the predominantly residential housing complex exceeds the ceiling of 10 per cent, the project loans should be classified as CRE and not CRE-RH, the RBI has said. RBI further said that, “…our extant instruction requiring additional risk-weight of 25 percentage points for restructured housing loans and higher provisioning of 2 percent for housing loans extended at teaser rates by banks will continue to remain in force.”

Sahara freeze order gets Sebi Rs 52 cr in cash, investments

....After passing its attachment orders, Sebi informed all the banks, depositories, mutual funds and NBFCs, among others, about the matter and also requested Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct the chiefs of the banks to transfer the money of Sahara firms to a designated Sebi account. Sebi had also approached the Collectors of as many as 600 districts to request them not to permit the concerned Sahara entities and persons from any sale or transfer of properties attached by the regulator..........

Layout loan scam worth Rs 52cr, not Rs 57L

...... "Without proper documents, nationalized banks deny even opening account to common man. So, how can BoI sanction such a big amount for non-existing plots. RBI should take cognisance of the case," ...........

My View on "FM to meet PSU banks Executives on 26th"

...for strict adherence of regulatory requirements in  banks own and in the interests of the economy. The tendency to question the regulatory requirements at the cost of the economy and banks' own discipline needs to be curbed......

Read the views expressed by Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

Why IMF may be wrong on 'inflation targeting'

......While independent central banks can be credited for initially anchoring inflationary expectations, the reality, however, is that "inflation targeting" also inflated the asset bubbles that were the ultimate triggers of the recent global financial crisis. The IMF has perhaps failed to give due credit to two major structural changes in the global economy that kept, and are keeping, inflation low, undermining the traditional role of consumer price inflation as a robust marker of business cycles........

FM's meeting with PSU bankers on June 26 postponed

........"The meeting with the Finance Minister stands postponed as some bankers requested the Finance Ministry for deferment because their annual general meeting (AGM) coinciding with the meeting date," ..............

‘Banks Should Go After Wilful Defaulters to Control Bad Loans’ - Rajiv Takru

It has been a little under six months after Rajiv Takru took over as secretary, department of financial services, or DFS, which handles state-owned banks, financial and investment institutions such as LIC, besides policies relating to pensions

.........There is no doubt that the only way for an economy to grow is to have financial inclusion. But it does not mean that anyone who applies will get a licence. I am sure RBI has no intention of being reckless. Due diligence, super due diligence must be done before someone is given permission. Because the last thing we want is a dicey character coming here and fooling around in the banking sector. Actually all the major failures have been because banks have gone fooling around and giving loans in wrong places and because of ownerships, connections and lack of firewalls. People were allowed to take money and then siphon it out. This has happened the world over. So why do you think that RBI is going through this elaborate exercise of internal committee and external committee...........

Read - ET

RBI hurdle in Bengal savings scheme


The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reluctance to let non-banking financial entities accept public deposits has put a question mark on the savings scheme West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on May 9. The West Bengal government too is aware of the hurdles in launching the investment scheme that was proposed after the ponzi bubble burst to expose the Saradha Group and other deposit collecting firms.........


Irda may allow banks sell products from multiple insurers

Despite the Reserve Bank of India's apprehensions, insurance regulator Irda is set to issue guidelines allowing banks to sell products of many insurance companies as against those of only one life and one non-life insurer at present. These guidelines will, however, come with some stringent provisions against mis-selling of such products by banks. The final decision on the revised norms on bancassurance — or banks selling insurance products — is likely to be taken at the Irda board meeting slated to held on June 28, finance ministry sources said............

AllBank thrust on selling insurance

.....As part of the Reserve Bank’s financial inclusion programme, AllBank has covered 2,618 villages with a population of 2,000 and above. The bank is also looking to cover over 12,000 villages with a population of less than 2,000 by 2016. However, despite the focus of the IRDA, the sale of micro-insurance products remains a challenge.........

SBT tells customers to ‘cover’ positions in forex market

.......The bank had lined up a number of experts dealing in forex market and related fields to update the audience on what had triggered the precipitous fall of the rupee in recent times, among other things. “Ensure you are effectively covered and at no cost should any position kept open for long” was the advice tendered to anxious customers, ...........


Risk-off this time too should pass

....The biggest positive in our economy perhaps comes from the substantial moderation in WPI inflation, to within the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) comfort level. Food inflation too, is likely to moderate. I believe, the onset of a normal monsoon, decent rabi production in FY2013 and expectations of moderate minimum support price hikes bode positively to support the moderation in food inflation. These factors are likely to give RBI room to cut the repo by an additional 50 basis points to support economic growth...............

Read | Business Standard

What if a cheque bounces?

Bounced cheques are one of the most common offences plaguing the financial world. According to the Supreme Court, there are over 40 lakh such pending cases in the country. A cheque can be dishonoured for various reasons, the most common being insufficient funds in the account of the person drawing the cheque, and a mismatch of signatures with the bank records. But what do you do if you land a bad cheque? Here’s a step-by-step guide to the legal recourse that is available to you.......

Read - ET


Who regulates the deposit takers?

While it is well known that banks are governed by RBI, most people don't know about the regulating bodies for companies that accept monetary deposits from the public.  Here's a listing of the regulators you can approach if you are duped by any one of these firms............

Use debt to beat volatility

......With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deciding not to cut repo rates, despite market expectation to the contrary, investors who positioned themselves for a rate cut by investing in long-term debt funds or gilt funds have been stranded. The outlook for an interest rate cut is not as clear now, as rupee depreciation could drive up inflation, which could further curb RBI's ability to cut rates............

Not Kapoor vs Kapur

It is perhaps for the first time in the corporate history of India that a court has stipulated the date for a meeting of a board of directors, set its main agenda, directed a decision be taken and, finally, subject that board decision to a judicial review. This is unprecedented even by the current standards of judicial activism. Much as the press has spiced it and played it up as a family squabble, the real issue at stake here is the very concept of a board-run, professionally managed company. In other words, corporate governance itself. What has happened so far severely questions that and has the potential to compromise the powers of the board...........

2.55-cr gold stolen from Indapur bank

.........the suspects had broken three lockers in which the bank had kept gold belonging to 250 customers, who had obtained loans from the bank by mortgaging their valuables. “The lockers of the other customers are intact,” Pardeshi said. The suspects had used cutters on the lockers to steal the gold. Closed-circuit television cameras inside the bank have captured the images of the suspects.........



‘Interest-free banking achievable through collective efforts’

...........“Islamic Banking isn’t the financial system restricted for the Muslims, but an ethical system aimed to benefit the entire mankind.” Some of the leading countries including England where the Muslim population is mere 2% have accepted the Shariat-compliant banking. Interestingly, in March 2009, Vatican's official newspaper Osservatore Romano hailed the Islamic banking saying: "The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service.".............

HDFC's Parekh warns home buyers of teaser products

........"To my mind, teaser products of any nature entail risks. Customers need to be cautious of 'too-good-to-be-true' type of products," Parekh said in a statement to shareholders of India's largest housing finance company...........

Parrikar meets FM for mining package

.......Parrikar also brought to the notice of Chidambaram the credit exposure of the banking sector including that of co-operative sector banks has in the mining belt and sought the intervention of the central government. The union finance minister assured the chief minister, that he will take up the matter with the governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for "a suitable course of action", according to the official statement issued in Panaji...................