India under Narendra Modi, Raghuram Rajan may be best emerging market turnaround story: Nomura

File Photo

Japanese brokerage Nomura today said India may become the biggest turnaround story among emerging markets in five years, given the decisive mandate received by the pro-growth Narendra Modi government and the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) actions. "The landslide election victory by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, combined with Governor Raghuram Rajan at the helm of RBI, is a potential game changer for India," it said.............

Read - FE

Can the government and the RBI work together?

...............However, one thing is very sure. RBI and the Government may not have a smooth sailing in a lot of areas. How soon and effectively they sort out the differences for better financial framework will decide the pace of economic recovery of the nation. And in our opinion, it is not going to happen any time soon. Given the messy legacy and sticky issues in the economy, a stable recovery is likely to take at least two three years. In the meantime, investors would do well to use bottom up stock picking approach. A bet on the broad macro economy may lead to burnt fingers. How do you think the equation between the RBI and the Government will impact the recovery process? Do share your views.............

Read........

Reserve Bank of India, Monetary Authority of Hong Kong ink MoU for information exchange

...."The RBI today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for supervisory cooperation and exchange of supervisory information with the Monetary Authority, Hong Kong," RBI said in a notification. The MoU with Monetary Authority, Hong Kong, was signed by Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive, Banking, the Monetary Authority, Hong Kong and Harun R Khan, Deputy Governor, RBI. The signing ceremony was held at the Monetary Authority office in Hong Kong.

Read - ET

NABARD emerging as economic growth engine

.......K. K. Saraf, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, in his key note address congratulated all the NABARD for its efforts in the development of agriculture and rural development in the state especially, the role played under micro finance, financial inclusion and covering of farmers under Kisan Credit Card scheme. The role played by NABARD for inclusive growth through watershed, financial inclusion, SHG-Bank linkage, village development, credit planning and other related activities was highly appreciable............

Read - Rising Kashmir

'Nabard’s growth has few parallels among peers'

..........Nirmal Chand, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Thiruvananthapuram, credited Nabard with success in piloting the core banking solution in cooperatives sector and driving financial inclusion. But its capabilities would be tested while seeking to ensure raised level of capital adequacy in the sector as mandated by the Reserve Bank. According to Chand, Union Budget 2014-15 sets great store by the Nabard’s proven credentials in executing major tasks in enabling the rural and agricultural sectors.............

Read - HBL

Honour for Veena maestro D. Balakrishna

.............“The task-master’s rod-of-discipline helped me reach where I am today, but he had urged me not to take up music as my profession,” recounts Mr. Balakrishna, adding that his father used to say how he could survive with such a meagre income. Mr. Balakrishna, an M.Sc. in Statistics, works with the RBI. He has 25 students across India and abroad.......

Read - The Hindu

Srikrishna erred - Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

My View on "Time will tell who behaved like 'NAWABs": 

Justice Srikrishna should have come out in the report how to improve the legal system of the country instead of taking away the powers of a very well functioning institution with all limitations. RBI has earned a name and has got recognition from all over the world. Once the limited autonomy it enjoys is taken away, the mess that the financial system particularly the banking system and the chaos that the economy may face are something unimaginable especially when the legal system in the country cannot provide any sort of relief. Time the legal system is revamped first before venturing into changes elsewhere. 

- Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

Mysterious Money Trail

.............Y.V. Reddy and V. Leeladhar ran the crusade for the RBI and K.M. Abraham and C.B. Bhave for Sebi. It sounds spooky when it is revealed that there were 93 lakh deposit holders who did not claim their money and that there are no records on Rs 40,000 crore of funds. Such money, according to the regulator, should have been transferred to the government fund if this was the case. Has the mystery been solved? You never can tell............

Read - Business World

Why ICICI Bank is one of the best companies to work for

.........Even after two years, the company does not sack the underperforming employees but only tells them that they will not be eligible for any increments, new job roles or bonuses, etc. Also, it never displaces pregnant women and people whose children are taking board exams. "If a person 45 years of age or above is asked to go, the person and the spouse continue to get medical support till they are 60," says Ramkumar. That is the reason why even former employees such as B. Shubhendu, who has worked in several multinational as well as Indian banks, still credits his stint at ICICI Bank as one of the most rewarding experience: "If it was not for the low pay slab, I would not have quit. They are caring, but are alert about non-performers,".........

Read - Business Today

Improve service first to domestic customers

.........KYC and Technology also  become more of a handicap than a help for customers to switch banks. Old generation banks under certain compulsions do care old generation people where as new generation banks have been enjoying the unwritten freedom to ignore old generation people.  When the domestic customers undergo harassing..........

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

RBI to issue new Rs 20 denomination notes

......."The RBI will shortly issue rupees 20 denomination banknotes incorporating rupee symbol, with inset letter E, in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005 bearing the signature of Raghuram G Rajan, Governor," RBI said in a release. ........

Read | Business Standard

Rs 10 coins to be issued by Reserve Bank of India on diamond jubilee of Coir Board

The Reserve Bank will soon put to circulation Rs 10 denominated coins on the occasion of diamond jubilee of Coir Board. "The government has minted the above mentioned coins which the Reserve Bank of India will shortly put into circulation," ...........

Read - ET

RBI quiz for students

................The preliminary and quarter final rounds will be held in Hyderabad on July 25 and in Visakhapatnam it is slated at Mother Teresa Dental Auditorium, GITAM University on July 28. The winning teams from each centre will join the other winners from across South India. While the zonal round is scheduled on November 7 in Chennai, the semi finals and finals will be held in Mumbai in November........

Read - The Hindu

Good news for subscribers, Provident Fund deposits likely to fetch higher rate of returns

.......... “The calculations are yet to be firmed up but efforts are on to ensure that the returns are higher than the 8.75 per cent announced for last fiscal,” said a senior official. But the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will have to review its estimates once the higher wage limit is notified........

Read - FE

IBPS PO 4th CWE Exam 2014: Online Apply, Eligibility and Exam date Notification

IBPS has  announced 4th CWE, Common Written Examination PO/MT for the recruitment of Probationary Officer/ Management Trainee vacancies in Public Sector Banks and online registration will be started from 22.07.2014 to 11.08.2014 . IBPS has made all preparation for conducting recruitment exam 2014. As sources said approx 35,000 vacancies will be fulfilled from this exam.........

Read..........

SBI manager out of India, out of pocket!

The Bombay high court has rapped the State Bank of India (SBI) for posting a manager abroad at a promised salary and reducing it later. Calling the bank’s decision “wholly arbitrary”, the court has said that on the basis of salary offers, people make life decisions like shifting with family and selecting educational institutes for children. Ravindra Nath was posted to the SBI’s Johannesburg branch in June 2000 and was offered a salary of $1,965 a month. Four months later, he was informed that it was being reduced to $1,300.........

Read - TOI

Bank staff association plans anti-privatisation stir

.............the P.J. Nayak committee, appointed recently by the Reserve Bank of India, had made a series of recommendations that would further erode the popular banking base of public sector banks. The recommendations include repeal of the Bank Nationalisation Act and bringing banks under the Companies Act. The panel moots creation of a Bank Investment Company that should be given ownership functions of the banks. The government should not appoint directors in the banks. The panel also recommends merger of banks. The new measures being adopted by the government, in pursuance of the policies followed by the previous government, were contrary to the banking system ..........

Read - The Hindu

Is it the end of gold saving schemes?

.........Jewellers are planning to approach the government for an amendment. So will there be a review? “The capital market regulator’s view points are different in terms of risk and mitigation. If the government is looking at reviewing the details in the Act, then may be the product can come back with checks and balances. It could be worked out in a way where companies make a declaration to the government to make sure that the information about the deposits is made available,”..............

Read - Mint

Skimmer walks away with Rs 2.6L from Andheri ATM

In what could be termed as the perfect crime, a man covering his face with a handkerchief and wearing a helmet entered an ATM booth in Andheri (West) and, with the help of a skimmer device, which was already fitted, managed to get card details of 11 customers, withdrawing Rs 2.60 lakh. The accused had also put a sticky CCTV camera to procure the PIN of the cards. The footage of CCTV in the ATM booth and one on the opposite side showed the accused had come on a bike but his licence plate number is not clearly visible in the footage..........

Read - DNA

First Data launches its mobile payment solution

..........“Merchants today are looking for a simple and reliable solution from a trusted partner to enable them to grow their business with customers. We are confident that our mPOS solution provides a cost-effective solution for converting on-the-go cash payments to electronic and for small merchants to start accepting cards. With this, First Data will provide all services to merchants through a single window rather than them having to interact with multiple providers.”..............

Read - HBL

KC Land & Finance eyeing differentiated bank licence

............ "We are keen to operate on a regional level with a special focus on farmers, NRIs and SMEs. We are from a rural background and have a strong foothold in the rural market. There are certain areas in Punjab where bank branches or business correspondent model is yet to be operational. We will target these areas and bring more people under the banking ambit which can help spur the regional economy."........

Read | Business Standard

RBI sets stiff terms for niche bank licences

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday paved the way for niche banking by issuing draft guidelines for setting up payment banks and small banks. While payment banks will offer remittance services, small banks will offer low-ticket loans and basic banking services within a limited area of operation. After initial screening to ensure eligibility, the central bank will set up an external committee to vet applications, which will be invited after the final norms are issued. Successful applicants will have to start operations within a year of the date of approval............

Read | Business Standard News

Small, payment banks a backdoor entry for companies into banking

.........As per the draft guidelines, existing non- bank finance companies, non- bank prepaid instrument issuers, corporate business correspondents, mobile telephone companies, super- market chains, companies, real sector co- operatives, and public sector entities were deemed eligible to apply for a payment bank. "... small local banks can play an important role in the supply of credit to micro and small enterprises, agriculture and banking services in unbanked and under- banked regions in the country, the RBI has decided to allow new " small banks" in the private sector," the RBI said.............

Read - FPJ

RBI proposes Rs 100 crore minimum capital required for setting up small bank and payment bank

.........The RBI has placed the Draft Guidelines for Licensing of Payments Banks and Draft Guidelines for Licensing of Small Banks for views/comments on the draft guidelines from all interested parties and general public. Both, payments banks and small banks are niche or differentiated banks; with the common objective of furthering financial inclusion. While small banks will provide a whole suite of basic banking products, such as, deposits and supply of credit, but in a limited area of operation, payments banks will provide a limited range of products, such as, .........

Read | Business Standard

The rupee's risky overvaluation

................. A third argument against rupee depreciation is that if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mops up incoming foreign exchange, the consequent increase in rupee liquidity would further complicate the tricky task of containing inflation. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, this article argues that India is taking a risky and sub-optimal approach by allowing the rupee to be overvalued against the dollar........

Read | Business Standard

RBI efforts bear fruit, CDR cases down

..........The amount of loans referred in Q1FY15 stood at R2,720 crore compared to R39,521 crore in the year-ago period. Bankers and CDR cell officials said this fall in referrals is a result of RBI guidelines on early detection of stressed assets where it had directed banks, in December last year, to classify loans on the basis of the number of days interest payments are due. Due to that...........

Read - FE

A prudent gamble?

...............After some apparent reluctance initially, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seems to have taken to the idea, extending the broad exemptions to funds raised and lent to low-cost housing projects. The details apart, the main benefit of the exemptions from the banks' point of view is that their cost of funds will decline in the absence of the prudential load, which can then be passed on to borrowers. But it would be naive to think that.........

Read | Business Standard

Financing infrastructure

...........Such mismatch can be avoided if banks are able to access long-term funds at relatively low cost. The RBI’s latest move — which follows Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget announcement — facilitates both. Banks today are required to keep ₹4 out of every ₹100 mobilised as deposits with the RBI, on which they earn no interest. They also have to compulsorily invest another ₹22.5 in government securities, apart from earmarking 40 per cent of their credit to so-called priority sectors. These pre-emptions...........

Read - HBL

Building on BRICS

...........Viewed from this perspective, the new institution's initiatives will only supplement IMF and World Bank, and there is enough unattended space for the new bank. There are limitations in the "already impaired" vision of the rich, and the poor cannot wait on the sidelines for their basic needs to be met.........

Read | Business Standard

BRICS bank gets the thumbs up from IMF

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday welcomed the move to set up a new BRICS development bank, saying that it is ready to work with the Bank’s leadership. “I would like to congratulate you on hosting a successful meeting of the BRICS leaders in Fortaleza, Brazil, and especially on establishing the Contingent Reserve Arrangement,” IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said in a message conveyed to the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.....

Read - FE

A development bank for developing nations

..............The getting together of the five leading developing nations is attractive as they had a combined share of around 20% of the global GDP in 2013 (IMF). However, all the nations are quite different in terms of politics, economic structures and governance. The concept of BRICS is more notional as these are countries which are geographically spread out with little competitive advantage in terms of distance or physical contiguity. Hence, this experiment will set a new financial trend.........

Read - FE

Banks to benefit more than HFCs through long-term bonds: Icra

...............The guidelines say banks can raise long term resources to finance their long term loans to affordable housing through minimum regulatory pre-emption like exemption in the mandatory government security holding and cash reserve ratio and priority sector lending, Icra said. The state-run banks, which have a better presence in the lower ticket loans segment, will benefit more as the definition of what constitutes as affordable housing has been enlarged, it said............

Read | Business Standard

Loan waiver: A.P. urges RBI to extend repayment period

.............Mr. Ramakrishnudu told reporters here on Thursday that normally RBI would give one year’s moratorium and five-year period for repayment but it agreed for a three-year period this time, including moratorium. “We are asking that to be extended to seven to 10 years”, he added. Besides urging RBI to fix the upper limit at Rs.1.5 lakh, the State government wants gold loans up to Rs. 50,000 to be rescheduled..........

Read - The Hindu

Bad loans hit cooperative banking sector in state

..............With 4,839 branches and 1,576 ATMs, cooperative banks have made their presence felt in every nook and corner of the state. In rural areas, cooperative banks are the only banks available to a large section of population. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and commissioner of cooperatives have joint control over banks. RBI can suspend the business of banks and appoint administrators by dismissing the board of directors. According to Dhanajay Dhoipode, joint registrar of cooperative societies, 10 banks have administrators as the RBI had dismissed their board of directors to save the banks and their depositors as bad loans piled up.........

Read | The Indian Express

COMING SOON TO DALAL STREET - A HUMDINGER . 20,000-Crore ` Share Sale by SBI

...India's largest bank is in discussions with the finance ministry over its financial requirements. The government is expected to support the plan as it's open to lowering its stake in state-run banks to 51%, besides which it doesn't have anywhere near the money needed to infuse the capital they require...............

Read - ET

Ethiopia seeks out Indian banks to boost investment

.........."Previously the Ethiopian government tried to support (investment funds) by availing investment finance with 70:30 ratio - 70 percent loan and 30 percent equity," Ethiopia's Minister for Industry, Ahmed Abetew, told IANS. "But nowadays, the demand for loan is higher than available loanable funds," he said. "That is why the presence of SBI presence is very crucial here in Ethiopia for availing investment funds for Indian companies as well as other companies."..........

Read | Business Standard

SBI ties up with RML for cheaper agri info for customers

.............The information, to be delivered in SMS form in nine languages, will include updates on weather, input prices, crop diseases, government schemes/initiatives and market prices of produce, it said in a release. "As per the new understanding, the service would be made even more affordable to SBI's agri customers," it said.........

Read | Business Standard