Subdued growth may trigger MFI mergers

Chennai: Growth prospects for microfinance institutions (MFIs) will remain subdued over the medium-term. Operating challenges arising from RBI’s recent guidelines for MFIs, coupled with expected difficulty in raising capital, are likely to trigger consolidation in the sector. However, RBI’s guidelines should ease pressure on MFIs’ profitability, as it has relaxed some recommendations of the Malegam committee, a Crisil research said. Furthermore, the continuation of priority sector status and steps to enhance transparency and governance should improve stakeholder confidence and enable resumption of bank funding. It is believed that clarity on regulatory jurisdiction for MFIs is a critical next step for long-term sustainability of the sector, the research said. Rupali Shanker, head, Crisil Ratings, said, “The MFI sector’s growth is likely to remain subdued over the medium-term, especially in regions with high microfinance penetration, because of proposed regulatory restrictions on multiple lending, loan size, and end-usage of loans. This will provide an impetus for consolidation in the sector.”  To comply with the new regulations, MFIs will have to enhance their internal systems and processes, strengthen their monitoring mechanisms, and invest in training their employees, she added. “Crisil also expects RBI’s guidelines to provide cushion to MFIs’ profitability and enable resumption of bank funding to MFIs. RBI’s guidelines are largely based on the Malegam committee recommendations, with some modifications: RBI has allowed a higher cap on interest rates and margin (of 26% and 12%, respectively) and has clearly defined the manner of computation for these caps,” she said. Pawan Agrawal, director, Crisil Ratings, said, “The regulatory jurisdiction for MFIs, however, remains unclear. While RBI has created a new category of non-banking financial companies to regulate the MFI sector, multiple regulators continue to oversee the sector. A clearer regulatory framework will remain critical to instill greater confidence in the sector.”

Kamath takes over as CMD at Vijaya Bank

HS Upendra Kamath took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Vijaya Bank, succeeding Albert Tauro who has retired from service. Kamath, who has 37 years of experience in the banking sector, was previously the executive director at Canara Bank. He is considered an expert in areas such as corporate finance, SME finance, risk management and international operations and has been a member of committees of the RBI and Indian Banks Association such as the working group on Benchmark Prime Lending Rate and the committee on retail banking.

Decks cleared for bank licences to business houses

New Delhi, Mar 15: The government and the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) are set to allow financial conglomerates and large industrial houses to
enter the banking industry.A bout half a dozen fresh banking licences are
expected to be given at one go to ensure that new entrants have a level playing
field, government sources said. The RBI recently submitted a set of proposals
on banking licences to the government. The final guidelines will be issued
after the finance ministry endorses the central bank’s draft.   Sources said that the new private sector entrants would be asked to open around 30% of their total branches in rural areas, as the government tries to calibrate commercial viability with financial inclusion.

Chaudhuri only nominee for SBI chief: Source

Pratip Chaudhuri, deputy managing director of State Bank of India (SBI), was the only person nominated to become chairman of the nation’s largest lender, a finance ministry official with knowledge of the matter said. His name has been proposed to the appointment committee of the cabinet, which will make a decision in the last week of March, the person said. Om Prakash Bhatt, chairman of SBI, will retire at the end of this month. The search committee that recommended Chaudhuri included RBI governor D Subbarao and former banking secretary R Gopalan, the person said.

Banks' borrowing from RBI to soar in mid-March

Banks' woes over tight liquidity conditions will mount in the middle of March during advance tax outflows, which could push up the call rate and also borrowing from the central bank's daily repo window.  Dealers expect banks to borrow more than 1.25 trillion rupees a day from the central bank compared with an average daily borrowing of 740 billion rupees daily so far this month.  Borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could touch a peak of 1.5 trillion rupees during mid-March and the inter-bank cash rate will be around 7.5 percent, said Manish Wadhawan, director and head of rates trading at HSBC India.  The call money rate, which is the overnight borrowing and lending rate of banks, may not breach 7.5 percent, which should be a comfort to the central bank given that banks can meet their funds requirement from the RBI's repo window.  Cash tightness in the banking system has been acute since November following inadequate government spending after the windfall collection from telecom spectrum, and public withdrawal of money from banks.  From November through January, banks borrowed an average around 850 billion rupees a day from the RBI's repo window, touching over 1 trillion rupees even in February.  Dealers estimate the advance tax outflows to be around 500-600 billion rupees, which could take the average liquidity deficit to around 1.5 trillion rupees.  Liquidity-driven short-term rates have been edging up with the three-month CD rates at 10.10 percent while the one-year was at 10.20 percent on Thursday.  Short-end rates on certificates of deposits are expected to inch up faster compared with the long-end in March, leading to an inversion in the CD curve, a phenomenon not seen since October 2008, when the global recession was at its height.  Expectations of at least a 25-basis-point rate hike at the March 17 central bank policy review, to contain inflation pressure, is also adding to upward pressure on short-term rates, bankers added.  Besides the existing cash crunch, a pick-up in credit growth for banks will also keep the demand for funds high.  Banks' loan growth has been a robust 23.9 percent on year to Feb 11 compared to the RBI's projection of 20 percent for 2010/11.  Repo borrowings should go up also because we expect that the credit growth will pick up. There has been good incremental credit growth. So going forward if it becomes stronger as expected, the repo borrowing will also go up, an official from a state-run bank said.  However, dealers expect the cash crunch to ease by March-end and liquidity deficit to come down to around 400 billion rupees on government spending.  The RBI has said it aims to maintain liquidity in the range of positive 500 billion rupees to negative 500 billion rupees and therefore should be comfortable with cash conditions March-end.  Post the advance tax, for a short while the call rates may go up to 7 percent but that will be only a temporary aberration for about a week's time, said R.V.S. Sridhar, president and head of markets of treasury at Axis Bank.  While many banks may be genuinely borrowing from RBI to meet liquidity mismatches, some may try to make hay while the sun shines.  These banks usually during such cash crunch conditions, use their excess government bond holdings, otherwise known as statutory liquidity ratio or SLR, to borrow funds from RBI at the repo rate which is 6.5 percent now, and lend in the uncollateralised call market at 7.25-7.50 percent, thereby making a plum arbitrage gain. This is nothing new and always happens with mostly public sector banks who run high SLR during advance tax payments, said a foreign bank dealer.  Some dealers also expect cash rate to remain near 7.50 percent on March 31 despite improved liquidity, as typically banks prefer to stay away from lending on the last day of a quarter as they would otherwise need to set aside capital for such lending, which would reduce their capital adequacy ratio.

Computerisation to help RBI better monitor NPAs: Dr.K.C.Chakrabarty

The Reserve Bank of India's Deputy Governor Dr.K.C.Chakrabarty said that once the core banking solution (CBS) was complete the central bank would be in a better position to monitor non-performing assets (NPA) of banks.  "Data coming from the origin without any manual intervention will bring the reliability and integrity of the data. RBI has detected enough discrepancies in data in the bank branches," Chakrabarty revealed. The deputy governor also suggested that increasing working hours in bank branches by dividing them into shifts would not only lessen the burden on the branches, but also help banks to bring down the cost of transactions by the maximum utilisation of technology. "When the transaction cost comes down, bank can offer more interest rate on deposits and charging less interest rate on lending. When more and more people start taking use of technology, its cost comes down," he said.  On rising frauds in banks, Chakrbarty said that there are normally 20-25 lakh transactions happening in the banking industry everyday. “If any fraud is happening at any point of time in a bank, then the bank itself is supposed to examine it. All that we are trying to see if bank has got a system in place to keep a track of these frauds. In fact, it was one of the main purposes of having the supervisory mechanism in place,.'' he said. On financial inclusion, he said, "The commercial banks will be able to achieve the financial inclusion goal by March 2012 whereas the RRBs will be able to achieve it by September this year itself. Many of them, which may include Maharashtra Grameen Bank sponsored by Bank of Maharashtra have already completed it." On increasing reliance on Rural Infrastructure Development Fund(RIDF) by the banks, Chakrbarty clarified that if the banks are not able to meet the priority sector targets, then only the RIDF comes into the picture.  “The objective of RIDF is not that banks should not achieve their priority sector lending targets and give the money to RIDF. There ways to fulfill the demands of priority sector lending,” he said.

New currency design to check black money

The finance ministry plans to phase out the varied looks of Indian currency notes by giving them a makeover. A committee appointed by the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will soon give green signal to RBI for approving a new design for currency notes. It follows the introduction of the rupee symbol that got Cabinet approval last year. The catch in the plan is it will involve a gradual recall of the old currency notes without creating a panic in the market. The recall is where black money can be tracked very effectively.  The finance ministry officials are clear this should not be seen as demonetisation. But they acknowledge that a plan to replace the old currency, will definitely impact those who have stashed away currency in high denomination notes.  The reason to upgrade and make uniform the look of the Indian currency has been felt for a long time. For instance, two kinds of ten rupee notes are in circulation at present. These are the older white series and the more current orange coloured ones.  Since both are valid, though the latter has improved security features, it has been possible for counterfeiters to push through the older ones and get away with it. The introduction of the new design, officials feel, will not solve the counterfeiting problem unless all notes from the older series is phased out and a date set for them to cease as legal tenders.  This will not be the first time the Indian government will recall a set of currency notes. The last time it was done as a clear anti-black money operation in the seventies.  While the problem of counterfeiting has been there over the years, it is now that the RBI and the finance ministry feels that they have got a grasp over the solution.  The possibility of using it to track black money too has made the plan more attractive. It has also been helped by the incorporation of the new public sector company, SPMCIL, that has taken over and modernised all currency notes and mints across the country, in 2008.

Finmin calls on PSBs to scrap housing loan foreclosure fees

In major relief for home loan borrowers, the government has suggested that the public sector banks (PSBs) stop levying pre-payment penalty or foreclosure charges on home loans. Banks impose penalty of over 2% of outstanding principal on borrowers who repay in totality or a portion of their home loan ahead of tenure. In a recent communique to public sector banks and the Indian Banking Association (IBA), the finance ministry advised lending institutions that there should not be any penalty in case a borrower pre-pays home loans from his/her own funds. Public sector banks have already implemented the government's advice, said bankers and government officials. State Bank of India, for example, does not levy any pre-payment penalty on borrowers repaying loans from their own funds.  Other PSBs too have followed suit. However, private sector banks continue to levy hefty pre-payment charges, which can go up to as much as 4% of the outstanding loan amount of a borrower. The department of financial services has issued the advisory, even as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) recently ruled that levy of pre-payment penalty on home loans is not anti-competitive. (The Commission's investigative wing later took the opposite view, which favoured scrapping foreclosure charges on housing loans.)  “No pre-payment charges may be levied by the lending institutions when the loan amount is paid by the borrowers out of their own funds,” according to a finance ministry communique issued to the PSBs as well as IBA. The ministry issued this advisory after discussing the matter with the Reserve Bank and IBA, official sources said.  Retail loan portfolio of scheduled commercial banks grew 20% year-on-year to Rs. 3,15,862 crore in March 2010, as per RBI data. Even though PSBs have implemented the government’s suggestion, IBA, the lobby group of leading private and public sector banks, pointed out to the government that banks would raise interest rates if they are not allowed to levy pre-payment penalty.  The RBI, meanwhile, is also in favour of private sector banks pruning these charges, and keeping them in line with the average cost of funds. Banks enjoy operational autonomy and pricing freedom with regard to banking transactions including loans. Bankers argue that pre-payment penalty or foreclosure charges are imposed keeping in mind the cost of funds and the issue of asset-liability mismatch. Banks’ term deposits are typically of 1-5 years duration, whereas maturity of the loans is usually 15 years plus, which results in asset-liability mismatch.

Consolidation of public sector banks back on front burner

The long-standing proposal for consolidation of public sector banks is back on the government's agenda. Senior officials in the banking sector have told FE that finance ministry is likely to appoint a committee to look into the consolidation of such banks. An announcement is expected in the Budget. The committee, which will have officials from the finance ministry, Reserve Bank of India and some bankers, will look into the merits of bank consolidation, recommend a plan of action to achieve the goal and also identify possible banks to take the process forward. Recently, the standing committee on finance headed by Yashwant Sinha also recommended that the government to spell out clear policy on bank mergers and conduct an in-depth analysis on various aspects of bank consolidation.

RBI employees want autonomy on staff issues

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employees on Wednesday protested against the government move to control the central bank’s staff-related matters. Employees across the country wore badges opposing statutarisation of staff regulations and resolution of pension related issues. “The government move to control staff regulations of RBI threatens the autonomy of the RBI. This would mean the central bank board and the governor would have no say in matter relating to RBI,’’ said a protesting employee union member on the condition of anonymity. “We have raised the issue with the RBI governor however, no action has been taken on the same hence we are protesting,’’ he added.  At present, RBI controls matters relating to incentives, promotions and remuneration of its staff. Statutarisation would bring these matters under the purview of government. “Our pension updation has also been stuck as the RBI board is opposing statutarisation. The government has been putting pressure on RBI to make staff regulations statutory under Section 58 of the RBI Act, 1934, and bring them under the subordinate legislation of Parliament.

Corporates need to spruce up risk management: Gopinath

Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath has cautioned that in an open economy like India , there is need for greater recognition of currency and interest rate risks and the risk management in banks and corporate firms need to gear up their risk management practices further in this area. “It is our experience that a large number of corporates still do not have well-designed risk management policies and practices to take care of volatile exchange rate movements and give scant regard to tail risks. There is also need for greater disclosure and adherence to accounting standards for financial instruments,'' said Gopinath who was addressing .Annual Conference of the Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association of India (FEDAI) on Friday ``Approach to Capital Account Management - Shifting Contours''. There is also need to more comprehensively qualitatively assessment of of India's external liabilities to encompass liabilities of subsidiaries and branches of Indian financial institutions overseas, not in nominal terms but through a risk-based approach on the probability of recourse to parent bank liquidity support, said Gopinath. However, with focus on capital flows on a net basis, it is often not realized that portfolio flows were $174 billion a year over last three years on a gross basis, far outstripping FDI flows at $37 billion a year. In gross terms, over the last five years (2005-06 to 2009-10) FII flows have accounted for 47% of the gross capital inflows to India as against 9% for FDI inflows. This of course has more to do with the nature of these flows with a much larger churn for portfolio capital. High gross flows make economy more susceptible to such reversals and as such we need to continue to maintain adequate buffers, said Gopinath. In the current context, a high current account deficit (CAD) has been absorbing much of the capital flows in aggregate terms. The concerns, however, arise on account of the composition of flows coupled with lower order of reserves accretion and faster increase in external liabilities, added Gopinath. The enhanced exposure to external liabilities is reflected in the sharp increase in the ratio of external debt to foreign exchange reserves from 89.1% of GDP in 2008-09 to 99.1% as at end June 2010. Moreover, the ratio of short-term debt to reserves has increased from 17.2% to 21.0% during the same period. Another issue that may come up going forward relates to repayment of FCCBs. The redemption pressures on account of FCCBs would start building up from 2010-11 and peak in the next couple of years till 2012-13. She further said that there have been some concerns on the declining FDI flows in the recent past though as stated earlier it has little to do with the regulatory framework per se except in certain sectors. The moderation in FDI inflows to India during April-November 2010 has been driven by sectors such as construction, mining and business services.

Technology not reaching customers: Chakrabarty

RBI Deputy Governor Dr.K.C.Chakrabarty has said the benefits of technology adopted by the banks have not percolated in terms of cost, speed and convenience of the customer. The banks should move towards empowering the present day customers of information or digital age by greater choice, greater access, and better, faster, more efficient modes of delivery and service. "Customers are not going back to the old ways of banking. They are moving forward. If the banks do not complement their speed, the customers will pass by,'' said Chakrabarty.

Finmin weighs extension for Union Bank, LIC chairmen

After putting new SBI and a new SEBI chiefs at helm, the finance ministry is currently evaluating whether to give extension to the tenures of LIC chairman T.S.Vijayan and Union Bank of India CMD M.V.Nair - both will be completing their respective five-year tenure but will be having residual services to reach 60. Vijayan, who recently had to do a lot of firefighting after Central Bureau of Investigation arrested officials from LIC's investigation department and LIC Housing Finance CEO R.R.Nair in bribe-for-loans cases, will be completing five years in April but will have two more years to reach the superannuation age of 60. Similarly, Nair will ending his five-year tenure at UBI in March but will have one more year to reach the retirement age of 60. It has not been an easy decision for the finance ministry to decide whether to go for extension in both Vijayan and Nair's cases as not giving extension after 'a tenure of five years' has become a parctice for so many other important appointments in financial sector and other public sector enterprises. Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Sarthak Behuria, CMD, India Oil, Ashok Sinha, CMD, Bharat Petroleum Company were earlier denied extension though all of them had residual services to reach 60. Sources point out that initial round of discussion among the top official of the ministry hasn't found favour for giving extension to both Vijyan and Nair.. But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is yet take a call. There are indications that Vijayan may be rehabilitated in any other top posts like UTI Chief which has fallen vacant after U.K.Sinha's appointment as SEBI Chairman or a member in the Securities Appellate Tribunal. Similarly, Nair may be shifted as the executive chairman of Star Union Life Insurance, a life insurance joint venture among Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Japanese major Dai-ichi. The contenders for the LIC chiefs in terms of seniority are DK Mehotra, Thomas Mathew, AK Dasgupta - all are currently LIC's three managing directors. Finance ministry sources point out there will be a decision about the LIC chief soon. Meanwhile, the ministry is also in the process of filling up posts of UTI chairman, Nabard chairman, CMDs of Sidbi and ECGC. For top posts of Nabard, the name of Prakah Bakshi, one of the junior most executive directors in Nabard is doing the round, sources point out. If selected Bakshi will be superseding many of his seniors including SK Mitra who is the senior most ED in the organisation. Incidentally, KG Karmakar, managing director of Nabard who has almost completed five years in the post was excluded from the exercise to choose chairman as he has one and half years of service left, falling short of the two year of residual service norms for selection of Nabard chief.

Cheque mate

Two months after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced the new guidelines for the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) in the National Capital Region, some customers have had a nasty surprise: Many cheques started returning to issuers, due to alterations and over-writing in them. The CTS is an online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically. In this process, the existing system of settlement of payment on the basis of physical cheque movement is eliminated. The technology was introduced in the NCR and will be subsequently implemented in Chennai by the middle of the year and in other places like Mumbai. This will minimise the scope for frauds and provide benefits to both banks and the customers. As a result, any cheque which has over-writing or other corrections will be returned to the issuer of the cheque. However, changes or correction can be done on dates and for any other changes, one needs to issue a fresh cheque. The cheque images captured at the presenting bank in the NCR are transmitted to the clearing house for onward transmission to the payee or drawee bank. It is the responsibility of the drawee bank to capture the inward data and images and generate the return file for unpaid instruments. The electronic image of the cheque is sent to the drawee branch along with the image of the deposit slip which is clipped with the cheque by the customer. CTS reduces the scope for clearing-related frauds and minimises the cost of collection of cheque. For the bank, the benefits would be immense which would help them to introduce new products and optimise resources. Globally, CTS is being practised across many countries for faster clearing of cheques. The RBI has given a directive to banks prohibiting alterations/corrections on cheques cleared under the image-based CTS. The central bank has also clarified that rule does not apply to cheques cleared under other clearing arrangements such as MICR clearing,non-MICR clearing, over-the-counter collection (for cash payment), or even for direct collection of cheques outside the Clearing House arrangement. Diwakar Nigam, managing director of Newgen Software, the company which has developed the CTS software in NCR, says the system offers better reconciliation and will help prevent fraud. “It will also help a customer to get clearance within NCR in one day’s time and bring in efficiency in the process. It will also reduce the heavy paper-load as the process will be completely digitalised.” He says the second stage will cover Chennai and other southern regions and then to Mumbai. However, it will take three to five years to implement the process across the country. Realisation of proceeds of cheques can be done the same day itself and not 3-4 days which is currently the case across the country. For inter-city cheques, it takes two days for the clearance. CTS is more secure and is protected by a comprehensive Public Key Infrastructure-based security architecture which incorporates basis security and authentication checks such as dual access control. It is more secure a system and does not create any delay or inconvenience to the customer in case the cheque is lost in transit. Bankers say customers should use a dark-colour black ink pen while drawing the instruments and utmost care must be taken while using the rubber stamp and it should not be used on the printed code of the instruments. The physical cheque is warehoused with the presenting bank, in case the customer wants to get back the instrument. Experts the central bank must conduct an awareness campaign on over-writing and other corrections on cheques. “People usually sign near the correction as that is what has been done for many years. But with CTS, a cheque which has an alteration, even with a signature beside the alteration the bank will not accept the cheque and instead return it to the customer,” says a banker. Analysts say customers will have to be careful while issuing cheques for credit card payments, utility payments, insurance and investments, as most of them are linked to late payment fees. As a result of the central bank’s new directive, many utilities have been turning away cheques with any form of correction or alteration even if the changes were validated by the cheque drawer’s signature and that too in places either than the NCR. To avoid any late payment charges, they must pay well before time so that in case the cheque is returned, the customer will have enough time to issue a fresh cheque.

95% households in NE do not have access to banking – Shyamala Gopinath, Deputy Governor, RBI

Altogether 95 per cent households in North East do not have access to banking services against the national average of 43 per cent, RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath said. "Despite efforts by RBI during the last 75 years, there are as many as 145 million households in the country not having access to banking", she said while speaking at the RBI's Financial Outreach camp at Karsingsa near. She said RBI has been launching such programmes in all the states of the region to extend banking services to every unbanked village. "Our institution has taken a conscious decision to bring the households into the banking fold which will not only result in making available the affordable banking services to everyone but will inculcate savings and investment habits among the people", she said.  "The challenge is enormous, but necessary, because financial inclusion is what will give people an opportunity to build better lives for themselves and their children", she added. Karsingsa, a village within the vicinity of the state's capital, having a population of over 2000 does not have banking facilities. The camp has served as a boon for the denizens as 203 No Frill Account (Zero Balance Account) with zero deposits were opened with SBI branches at Nirjuli and Naharlagun.

Flexible inflation targeting best, says Bank of Israel Governor

Bank of Israel Governor and a former official of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Stanley Fischer has argued that "flexible inflation targeting is the best way of conducting money policy". "The tripartite set of goals of money policy set out in modern central bank laws provide the best understanding of what a central bank should try to achieve.  Among other issues a central bank should aim to maintain price stability, to support the other goals of economic policy, particularly growth and employment, so long as medium term price stability ­over the course of a year or two or even three ­is preserved, and to support and promote the stability and efficiency of the financial system," Fischer said while delivering the third PR Brahmananda Memorial Lecture on `Central Bank Lessons from the GlobalCrisis'.  "But 'flexible' does not mean that a country should not intervene in the foreign exchange market, or that the capital account should be completely open. Rather, it means that the country should not draw an exchange rate line in the sand and declare 'thus far, and no further'. Countries should not commit themselves to defending a particular exchange rate," he said.

RBI snubs NRIs, says not eligible for interest sops on home loans

The Reserve Bank today said non-resident Indians would not be eligible for incentives on interest on home loans of up to Rs 10 lakh.  Banks provide one per cent interest subsidy for home loans of up to Rs 10 lakh. "Housing loans extended to NRIs for construction of farm houses, and to staff members of the banks are not eligible for subsidy under the scheme," it said in a notification.   The central bank said the notification follows the recent clarifications issued by the government.  The government, in the Budget of 2009-10, announced a scheme of one per cent interest subvention in respect of individual housing loans up to Rs 10 lakh, provided the cost of unit does not exceed Rs 20 lakh.  The scheme was valid till September 30, 2010, with an initial allocation of Rs 1,000 crore. During the last Budget, the scheme was extended till March 31, 2011, with an additional provision of Rs 700 crore.  Further, RBI directed the banks to use their own funds for upfront credit of subsidy under the scheme till government makes reimbursement and added that loans sanctioned prior to October 1, 2009 would not qualify for reimbursement under it.  "While calculating the interest subsidy, each disbursement may be treated as a separate loan and for each disbursement, subsidy claim may be made for twelve instalments," RBI said.  The apex bank also asked all the lenders to submit their claims on a monthly basis in respect of all housing loans eligible for subsidy under the scheme.

RBI to issue new Rs 10 coin

The Reserve Bank of India will soon put new coins of Rs 10 denomination into circulation to felicitate its Platinum Jubilee.  The front face of the coins will have the Ashoka Pillar embossed in their centre, an RBI release said. The reverse will bear the emblem of the Reserve Bank of India, a palm tree tiger, along with the year "1935-2010" below the emblem, it said.