RBI to open branch at Itanagar

ITANAGAR, March 26 – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will open a branch here soon. Addressing the participants at the financial outreach camp held at Kimin in Papum Pare district in Arunachal Pradesh today, RBI Deputy Governor H.R.Khan said steps would be taken for establishment of RBI branch at Itanagar soon while a State Bank of India (SBI) branch would be opened at Kimin within six months. This will be RBI’s fourth branch in North East after the proposed branches at Shillong and Agartala besides the existing one at Guwahati. Khan also announced that Arunachal Pradesh Rural Bank would be brought under core banking umbrella soon. Underlining the importance of widening banking facilities in all parts of the country, especially in North East to enhance the economy of the region, the RBI Deputy Governor informed that as part of its Platinum Jubilee celebration, RBI has conducted 21 outreach camps in different parts of North East including three in Arunachal Pradesh with an aim to sensitise public about various banking facilities and bring them under the fold of mainstream banking. He cautioned the people against frequent online lottery prize announcements that dupe innocent people and advised people to report such cases to police. Khan further highlighted various innovative schemes launched by banks including National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and mobile banking which is likely to pick up in next two-three years in the area.  Speaking on the ombudsman role of RBI, B.B.Sangma, the Banking Ombudsman informed the people that it serves as a Banking Lokpal and looks into various complaints of customers relating to banking practices including pension matters, interest rates and shortage of coins, etc. S Marandi, Regional Director, RBI, Guwahati, while welcoming the guests, informed that similar awareness camps in the Northeastern region are being organised to involve people from remote areas to banking practices and thereby to enhance their economic standard.

The Assam Tribune

Speculative innovation

Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, used to say the only worthwhile financial innovation in last 60 years is the automated teller machine (ATM). Reserve Bank of India’s Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty recently quoted Volcker’s famous comment but added in his forthright style, “The ATM was the only innovation; others were only speculation.”

BS

RBI asks banks to locate 1.2 crore inoperative accounts: Government

....... "Keeping in view public interest, the RBI has advised all SCBs (scheduled commercial banks) to play a more pro-active role in finding the whereabouts of the account holders whose accounts have remained inoperative,".........

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No need for signature attestation for opening fixed deposits, lockers: Reserve Bank of India

..... The Reserve Bank on Monday asked banks not to insist on attestation of signatures of persons wanting to invest their funds in fixed deposits schemes or opening a bank locker......

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Payment gateway Rupay launched

...... Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Executive Director G. Padmanabhan said the central bank will not endorse banks to choose the RuPay network. “Banks can choose what they want, but if the costs are so low, then obviously they will save a lot,” he said.......

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Banks should cut transaction charge on debit cards: RBI

..... “We are saying that the debit card interchange fee should be lower because credit cards get paid after sometime, whereas in debit cards, there is an instantaneous debit into my account. Hence, logically debit cards charges should be lower,” said G Padmanabhan, Executive Director, RBI, who is in-charge of the payments and settlement system………

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Debit cards based on RuPay platform launched

.....State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, and Union Bank of India on Monday formally launched debit cards based on the indigenously developed RuPay payment platform........

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Bank bad loans a concern, effort on to fix it: DK Mittal, Financial Services Secretary

...........There are two type of financial inclusion- one on paper and other in reality. First, we have advised banks to close down dormant nofrill accounts, or to merge them to get a clear picture. Second, we hope that once the ultra small branches become operational, we will be able to resolve this issue. These branches will cost Rs 6,000 each month, which is recoverable easily if they do a business of Rs 5-7 lakh.........

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To fix BPL, nix CPL

One Tendulkar makes the big scores. The other wrecks the averages. The Planning Commission clearly prefers Suresh to Sachin. Using Professor Tendulkar's methodology, it declares that there's been another massive fall in poverty.............

TRead - he Hindu

Beware of fake currency, say police

Coimbatore City Police have asked the public to be cautious as counterfeit currency notes are in circulation. The police said that in the recent past two incidents had come to their notice. In the first incident, a railway employee was found in possession of 15 counterfeit currency notes of Rs. 1,000 denominations, which came to light when he went to a bank to send money to his relatives. In the second incident, a car owner who tried to pay for fuel was found tendering a counterfeit Rs. 1,000 note. Enquiries with the car owner revealed that he got the note from an ATM in Kerala. The police asked public to be cautious while dealing in Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes and asked commercial establishment owners and employees to be aware of the safety features in currencies.

The Hindu

Banks need to narrow retail, bulk deposit disparity: RBI deputy

.... "If it (the difference between retail and bulk deposit rates) varies too much, then there is something wrong," said Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty on the sidelines of a banking event........

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RBI prevails; bank branches with Rs 6 cr biz to be audited

The finance ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have finally agreed that bank branches with advances of at least Rs 6 crore are to be audited. The ministry earlier wanted the threshold to be Rs 20 crore. RBI, however, wanted it to be Rs 6 crore.............

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Fiscal deficit estimates are unconvincing

....even though the budget estimate assumes zero net Ways and Means Advances (WMA) from the RBI, in the event of continuation of tight liquidity conditions, the recourse to WMA is inevitable. This development would further aggravate the problems of monetary management. With such fiscal pressure, there is no manoeuvrability left with the RBI for a policy (repo) rate reduction. ........

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Relief and shield for small savers

Rates still lower than banks’ but one-year guarantee to come in handy

........The decision to align the small savings rates to the comparable gilt rates was taken on the basis of the report submitted by the Shyamala Gopinath committee last June after a comprehensive review of the national small savings fund.......

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Reserve Bank tightens fair practices code for NBFCs

The Reserve Bank of India, on Monday, revamped the fair practices code (FPC) to be adopted by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) while doing lending business.The guidelines covered general principles on adequate disclosures on the terms and conditions of a loan and also adopting a non-coercive recovery method............

Read - The Hindu

MFI sector will take years to recover: Philip Vassiliou

.... While the Bill has a number of shortcomings, it will at least establish the much-needed regulatory clarity and affirm the role of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the regulator…….

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Bad loans are looking bigger because the business has not grown this fiscal

........ How do you see (former RBI deputy governor) Usha Thorat’s recommendations on NBFCs? Is the raising of core capital requirement to 12% from 7.5% a concern?

The raising of core capital by 4.5 percentage points may not be a concern for Shriram Transport Finance. It is the reduction of accounting NPAs to 90 days from 180 days, which small borrowers will take time to adhere, who are not serviced by banks. It will take time for these borrowers to make this cultural shift to follow the 90 days (schedule) and, therefore, till then NBFCs’ books will carry larger NPAs and higher provisioning as a result.......

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Not sure if RBI will cut rates in Apr: Rangarajan

......“I’m not sure what will happen as it would depend on the inflation number for March. But during the course of the year, there is a possibility (of rate cut by RBI),”...............

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A rate cut is required now to boost small and medium units' growth: Rajat Madhok

...... Things are pretty tight at present. Not much capex creation is happening by SMEs. However, the past six months have shown some hope and we can see a reversal coming soon. RBI’s monetary tightening has played a major role in making credit availability tight, but with some indications of revival, we are hopeful of a rate cut now………

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Market to fall if RBI does not cut rates says BNP Paribas

....According to BNP Paribas, in case there is no rate action on 17 April, market reaction would be adverse. The RBI may come up with a guidance in the statement on rate cuts going forward, but that would not help market sentiments as the direction is not the question now, the question is about the extent of rate cuts.......

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Cash crunch in banking system intensifies

....The overnight borrowing signify the intense cash squeeze in the banking system now translated to about 3.4 per cent of the aggregate deposits or way above the RBI's comfort level of 1 per cent. The cash squeeze was partly on account of banks pushing credit ahead of the year end in order to build their asset books, bank officials said......

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RBI asks gold loan cos to comply with KYC norms

Tightening the regulations for gold loan companies further, the Reserve Bank of India has asked non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) engaged in the gold loan business to put in place board-approved policy to ensure that KYC (know your customer) guidelines are complied with and adequate due diligence is carried out before extending any loan. ................

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