Banks have been asked to finalise their next three-year Financial Inclusion Plan for the 2013-16 period, according to Deepali Pant Joshi, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India. Broadly, the plan includes self-set targets for opening rural brick and mortar branches, employing Business Correspondents , covering unbanked villages through branches, Business Correspondents and other modes; and opening no-frills accounts to cater to the financially excluded segments............
The very purpose of VITALINFO is to provide a platform for wider dissemination of updated information related to and happening of events in and around RBI.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
22-year-old's cybersecurity firm protects CID, RBI site
.............The episode would be a turning point for the teenager who realised he could use his skills to protect not harm. Twenty two-year-old Modi now runs his own cybersecurity company, Lucideus Tech, that has a marquee client list that includes the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Criminal Investigation Department, Reserve Bank of India, IBM and various central and state investigative and intelligence agencies...........
THE CARD GAME
With plastic money gaining popularity among Indian masses, banks are stepping up efforts to increase credit card spends. Many banks have introduced reward programmes to persuade cardholders to use credit cards for booking tickets, paying bills or shopping online..............
‘Reorient outlook on customer service’
MANGALORE, APRIL 19:
Bankers should reorient their outlook on customer service, according to K.C. Chakrabarty, RBI Deputy Governor. He said this while addressing the members of the Bankers’ Club of Mangalore here. Quoting Chakrabarty, a press release said here that customers are now becoming more and more vulnerable to inappropriate pricing. The possible solution to insulate customers from vulnerabilities is by ensuring that the banks treat their customers fairly............
Banks will be fined Rs 1 crore for violating a single norm
............The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will now be able slap a penalty of Rs 1 crore on banks for breaching a single norm. If a bank breaches more than one norm, the amount fined will be multiple of Rs 1 crore. Earlier, for single violating the fine was Rs 5 lakh. The new norm comes into effect after Section 46 of the Banking Regulation Act was amended in the last winter session.....................
Goldman Sachs’ five reasons for gradual pickup in India’s GDP growth
.........Even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has gradually been reducing rates, there is considerable skepticism in the market about its impact on investment demand. According to Goldman's analysis on the relationship of interest rates and investment demand, a 1 per cent decline in short-end rates (3-month CD) leads to a 2.7 per cent increase in Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF). The impact happens with a lag of four quarters..........
Federal Bank in Rupay League
.............Federal Bank is the first private sector bank and the 10th bank in the country to launch Rupay Card, a press release said. Rupay is the card scheme launched by the National Payment Corporation of India to offer a domestic, open loop, multilateral system ......
Foreign firms set to cash in on demand for new format cheque scanners
...........A scanner that can scan a lot of 150 cheques will cost around Rs 1.50 lakh. A leading nationalised bank plans to buy around 500 such scanners for its branches in the South, said an official of the bank, who did not want to be named. “It is going to cost a huge amount for us. We need to rely only on global companies, as the demand for such scanners has just started for an Indian company to set up its manufacturing here,” he said. The Reserve Bank of India had asked banks to replace the existing bank cheques to CTS. This means, the collecting bank (presenting bank) sends the encrypted data and captured images of signed cheques to the central processing location (clearing house) for onward transmission to the paying bank (destination or drawee bank)...........
Chits wriggle past watchdogs
..............None of these companies is registered as chit funds with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in Bengal, they added. The RoC registration is mandatory to start a company. At least three government regulators come into play when a company or institution tries to raise money from the public — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda)................
Soon, PIL in HC seeking ban on chit fund operators
.........The officials also referred to the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes Act enacted by Parliament in 1978 that prohibits chit fund operations. "What happened to this law? What is RBI doing?'' the official questioned.
Nabard seeks standardisation in bank documents
......... "Raigad district central cooperative bank has introduced standardised forms for keeping records of loans, pending payments from farmers, loan sanctioned under various schemes, interest to be charged on it among others. Such standardisation will make documentation simpler as all branches of the banks in the state are being computerised and will be connected to the national financial switch, a requirement for direct cash transfer.".............
Interest subvention scheme expanded
......Some good news is likely to come the way of exporters on their cost of credit. A technical group, constituted by the Reserve Bank of India, is likely to take a call by this month-end on new measures for reducing the cost of export credit (in foreign currency), Sharma indicated. This group comprises senior officials from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Revenue Department and the RBI.............
PFRDA tightens investment norms for private pension fund managers
Tightening its norms for the private sector, in the National Pension System (NPS), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has barred fresh investments in equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from the corpus. It has also asked these fund managers to restrict their single-industry exposure to 15 per cent of NPS investments under all schemes...........
Friday, April 19, 2013
This is no way to manage public debt - S.S.Tarapore
 |
| ................It would be hara kiri to hastily set up an independent PDMA, say, by an ordinance, without a significant and enduring reduction of the fiscal deficit. The PDMA should be set up only when the government is able to undertake its borrowing without statutory prescriptions, as there could be a constant blame-game between the RBI and the PDMA................. |
Read - HBL
'Banking connectivity surges with BC model'
A journey through the Golden Quadrilateral to India’s heart
When this couple decided to pack their bags and set off on a long road trip, friends and relatives alike tried to dissuade them from undertaking the arduous journey across the country. Today, Ajit Lakshmiratan, a retired Reserve Bank of India officer, and his wife, Ramola Lakshmiratan, are thrilled to have stuck to their instincts to go ahead with the journey — covering the Golden Quadrilateral............
Quantitative capital controls more effective in short term:RBI
........"Our experience has been that while quantity controls are more effective in the short-term, they can also be distorting, inefficient and inequitable,"............
Moody Institution
Subbarao has a point when he says IMF did a poor job of predicting the crisis or in offering solutions
.......The biggest blow to the IMF’s credibility, of course, came from its research head Olivier Blanchard releasing a detailed working paper in January saying the IMF had got the ‘fiscal multipliers’—the impact of reducing fiscal deficits on economic growth—horribly wrong. The research paper said the under-estimation during the early part of the European crisis may have been three times...........
RBI views forex market intervention as real danger
........According to Subbarao, the lower your reserves dip, the more vulnerable you become. “And the vulnerability can become quite serious if your reserves go below the level markets perceive as necessary to regain market access,” he said.........
RBI looking at banking regulations, not black money: Takru
.....We are not talking here about black money because neither the RBI nor the ministry is the competent authority perhaps to decide whether money is black or white. Money has no colour; as far as we are concerned, money is money. Now, what the Reserve Bank of India is looking at is the banking regulations and how the banks have behaved and how the individuals who are working in the banks have behaved when it comes to following processes..............
Cobrapost fallout: RBI extends investigation to 34 banks
.....“RBI has questioned how non-sales staffs, involved on operational matters like a person who is in the teller counter, can have a target. Lure of achieving target leads to not doing the basic duty,” said a senior banker. RBI is likely to issue norms banning sales incentives to operational staff of the banks. Similarly, target on selling gold coins by operational staff will also be abolished. However, violation of anti money-laundering norms has not been found. “Money laundering has a criminal connotation. It was not found in the initial investigation that bank employees are indulging in such activities,” said banking industry sources.......
RBI to come up with new model to curb tax evasion
The Reserve Bank Of India has decided to come up with a new model to curb tax evasion, post Cobrapost revelations, reports Siddharth Zarabi of CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. On Wednesday, reacting to RBI’s probe report on Cobrapost sting, banking secretary Rajiv Takru had noted that audit report pointed towards some severe Know Your Customer (KYC) violations and there were evidence to suggest that the banks were advising clients to evade taxes.................
RBI money-laundering probe shows cooperative banks as the key facilitator of shady deals
...........The reason cooperative banks have repeatedly been at the centre of scams is the shady system of dual regulation, under which both Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RoCS) and the RBI are supposed to be regulating them. RoCS officials say that the RBI does not look closely at these banks, while the RBI says it waits for government recommendations to act as the State's Cooperatives Department has its auditors on the boards of the banks. The primary reason for this poor scrutiny is that most cooperative banks are set up and controlled by powerful politicians................
Alert: Banks ask for resubmission of KYC documents
.......Here’s a sample of the email sent by a private sector bank:
This is with reference to the RBI Guidelines for Re-submission of KYC documents for your ABC Bank Account. We request you to kindly submit the following documents at your home branch or any of your nearby ABC branch..............
My View on "Who will step into Subba Rao's shoes?"
We are familiar with Raghuram Rajan, the chief economic advisor to Finance Minister P Chidambaram , his exposure to international economic problems, his academic credentials and track record which makes him eminently suitable to be GOV.What is the track record of Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). All his life stayed in Rajasthan working in districts, administrative divisions etc.For a short tenure he came to MoF.How does he compare himself with GOVs of Central Banks of advanced countries.Put under the lens his expertise in Monetary Policy, Risk Management,Bank Supervisory expertise, role in implementing Basel Committee recommendations on the website and let the experts choose the next GOV. Why can't any RBI Dy GOV can become a GOV who has deep Central Banking expertise?Why only IAS types? What genetical complex RBI community is having?
- Sitendra Kumar
Recent developments which saw easing out of a Deputy Governor (Subir Gokarn) for no fault of his and compulsions to retain another Deputy Governor for another year calls for a review of the selection and placement procedure at that level. Perhaps the pool from which selection is made and the age profile (raising the upper age limit by 3 to 5 years from the present ‘normal’ at 62 years) need a review. In the circumstances, it would be most appropriate to extend the tenure of Governor Dr Subbarao who is to retire within months, initially by another year at this juncture. This would be a pragmatic political approach also, if one weighs the uncertainties in the horizon. Formulating and implementing succession plans for top government/public sector jobs with professionalism and efficiency in a graceful manner is imperative for allowing the institutions to function with reasonable functional autonomy within the legislative mandates.
- M.G.Warrier
Rajan will be good for the country, Mayaram for the government. In view of the general elections government would like to have someone at the helm of RBI who would play ball with it in vote bank politics. If it is Mayaram, expect a series of rate cuts and lower cash reserve ratios from September, irrespective of the economic situation. From the point of view of the RBI staff, Mayaram's appointment would ensure the continuation of two Deputy Governors' positions for them. If, however, Rajan becomes Governor one of the two DGs' posts will go to an IAS officer at the earliest opportunity. Since the middle of the 1980s the formula for the appointment of four Deputy Governors is: economist -1; commercial banker -1; IAS officer -1; and RBI promotee -1. When the Governor's post goes to an IAS officer, the quota for the service is released for being filled up by an RBI officer.
- A.Seshan
My View on "Govt banks may switch from gross salary to CTC for pay hike"
Like New Pension Scheme which has dismantled an existing social security system which was available to a small section of government and public sector employees without providing an acceptable transparent substitute, here again, it looks, GOI is planning to stealthily destabilise the wage structure in banking sector.
There is no denying that ‘Cost to Company’(CTC) is an aspect that should be transparently packaged in any wage policy. But asking one category of employers (public sector banks) with whom GOI has a master-servant relationship to come out with ‘views’ on the concept makes one suspect the motives.
Public sector, if backed with a level playing field as compared to the private sector, right from the Board Room to the junior-most functionary, will function much more efficiently than many of the private sector organisations in India, which, by and large, concentrate on the creamy layer of industrial and financial sector activities. Let us not forget that the civil services, executives and staff of public/private sector undertakings have to supplement the skills of the increasing number of political masters who were not as fortunate to get trained or groomed. The nation is immensely dependent on them for carrying out the development agenda on hand.
There is a governance and ethical issue hovering around the remuneration structure across government, public and private sectors and the unorganized sector in India. Time for a National Commission on Remuneration Practices has come. The Commission should go into the adequacy of wages, minimum and maximum remuneration across sectors, their relationship to lifestyle needs of employees and paying capacity of employers and the need to factor in social security needs like healthcare and old age needs in wages.
- M.G.Warrier
RBI wins above 40 yrs men’s team championship
JAMMU, Apr 18: : Reserve Bank of India wins men’s team championship of above 40 yrs beating Punjab 3-2 in the 20th J&K Bank National Veteran Table Tennis championship-2013 being played at Sher-E Kashmir Indoor Sports Complex in Srinagar..........
Mangelal Sharma gets his Rs 7 lakh back
..........Yesterday, there was another knock on 79-year old Mangelal Sharma’s door. Once again,the visitors were IndusInd Bank officials from his branch. But this time, it was not to mis-sell. The bankers came—at 11.30 in the night—bearing a demand draft of Rs7 lakh covering the amount he was persuaded to withdraw from his fixed deposit and invest in DWS’s mutual fund scheme with a 10-year lock in period.........
Gold plunge: Is RBI a gainer or loser
.“The value of RBI’s gold reserves—557.75 tonnes—declined from $34.08 billion (around Rs.1.84 trillion today) in September 2011, when the international gold price peaked at $1,900.23 per ounce (28.35 gram), to $24.17 billion early this week, when the yellow metal tumbled to its 26-month low of $1,347.95 per ounce.” However, with prices falling, central banks actually have an opportunity to buy into the yellow metal because holding the metal is part of a long-term strategy for diversifying currency reserves.........
RBI's gold reserves take a beating
Fall in gold price will likely result in a $1.37-billion dip in value of gold reserves with RBI................
Saving economies from economists
.......Economics has become an intellectual casino and does not deserve to be characterised as a ‘science’. A ‘science’ tests theories and experiments to accurately predict outcomes. Think physics, chemistry. Economics hardly qualifies, having got things wrong more often than not. And with disastrous consequences for all........
Crackdown on 'cheat' schemes
....According to financial experts, these firms had adopted some innovative techniques to raise money to bypass RBI and Sebi, like raising money through private placement of debentures and taking deposits against land. They offered very high returns - 20-30% - drawing lakhs of rural and semi-urban people...........
Keep your money safe: Avoid Chain-money schemes
.......The fact is that dubious financial schemes are proliferating so much that the SEBI chairman recently suggested a separate regulator for them. Understand the basics of how to keep your money safe, it is the first step to smart investment, returns come next!...............
Indian banks' overseas workforce expands
At a time when foreign banks operating in India are reducing their employee count here, Indian banks have increased their overseas workforce. The number of employees working abroad with Indian banks rose 6.1% in financial year 2011-12, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) survey on international trade in banking services. The employee count in foreign banks operating in India, however, decreased 2.9% during the financial year..........
Ibibo Group company PayU India launches online payment service PayuPaisa
Online payments company PayU India intends to make buying and selling over the internet more convenient with PayUPaisa, an e-commerce portal that allows sellers to create free websites to market their products without any physical paper work. Sellers have to submit details of their PAN card, bank account and products to be sold to get started..............
Govt tries to breathe life into SEZs
.......There was a promise of more to come with the Reserve Bank of India reviewing the dollar-credit window for exporters...........
RBI nod for sale of CSB shares to Yusuffali
Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB), on Thursday, said it had got the Reserve Bank of India’s permission to sell 4.99 per cent of its stake to Dubai-based Kerala businessman Yusuffali MA, who runs retail chain Lulu Centre in the Emirates..............
NRIs can get car loans in India, but conditions apply
..........As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), repayment can be done only through remittance received from outside India through normal banking channels or through non-resident external/ordinary accounts or out of income earned from a rented property in India. RBI has also allowed resident Indians to repay loans on behalf of their close NRI relatives............
ICICI Bank to up unsecured lending, says exec director
ICICI Bank will increase its portfolio of unsecured lending, including personal loans and credit cards, with a cautious approach, Rajiv Sabhrawal, the executive director of ICICI Bank said........
‘Customers prefer human contact in banking’
.............Speaking on human touch in banking, Krishnaswamy said the brick and mortar banking kept the bank and its customers connected on a daily basis. He said the concept of ‘know your customer’ was a reality here, and it was not based on documents...........
Rupee Bank impasse: Appointment of Pune based officer sought
....The depositors have demanded that the OSD should operate from Pune, as it will help fast-track the screening of almost 3,000 pending applications of depositors seeking emergency withdrawals. They also met Cooperative Minister Harshavardhan Patil in Mumbai on Tuesday and expressed concerns over the delay in withdrawals due to applications being routed to RBI headquarters in Mumbai instead of processing them in Pune. However, the depositors have hailed the role of the RBI-appointed administrator in spearheading the bad loan recovery drive............
Banks making good progress on farm loan waiver scheme
..........The CAG report, tabled in Parliament last month said loans taken by farmers for non—agricultural purposes and others which did not comply with the eligibility norms got benefited from the scheme and blamed bank officials for the mess. Following the disclosure, the Reserve Bank had swung into action and asked banks to rectify the administrative and accounting lapses by verifying each and every account. It had also thrusted the responsibility to do so individually on the heads of the banks..................
Foreign banks made Rs 9400 crore through fee income in 2011-12, says RBI
MUMBAI: Foreign bank branches operating in India generated a fee income of Rs. 9400 crore where as Indian bank branches over seas made a fee income of only Rs.6800 crore in 2011-12, according to a survey released by the Reserve Bank of India...........
HSBC says ready to follow RBI norms
....."We will move whichever way the RBI requires us to do," HSBC India Country Head Naina Lal Kidwai told PTI on the sidelines of an event here, when asked if the bank will be fine with going the subsidiary way. The comments come in the wake of recent reports that RBI had firmed up its mind on the way forward for foreign banks and would be insisting on them to operate as subsidiaries..............
ICICI Bank to grow personal loans, credit card business
......Risk of delinquencies since the 2008 economic meltdown has made the bank shrink its unsecured lending portfolio. As per Reserve Bank of India data, credit cards issued by ICICI reduced to 2.84 million in January 2013, from 2.86 million during the same period last year. It stood at 3.19 million as on June 2011........
Federal Bank launches Rupay debit card
.....Since the Rupay Transaction processing will happen domestically, it would lead to lower transaction cost for Federal Bank compared to international schemes, the Kerala-based bank said in a statement........
HDFC Bank reaches new milestone
HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector bank has reached a milestone of 200 branches in Andhra Pradesh. The latest one has been set up in Vemulawada, a pilgrim town in Karimnagar district. The bank will focus on opening more branches in the rural parts of Andhra Pradesh..................
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Who will step into Subbarao's shoes?
Designing an optimal RBI…........
Read..........
IMF has scope of improvement for tailoring advice to economies: Subbarao
................“There has been a lot said and written about how the IMF economists must be more open minded, less ideological, be bold enough to question orthodoxies and brave enough to differ from established wisdom. One important condition for this to happen is that IMF economists should talk to people beyond governments and policy institutions,”................
Subbarao criticizes IMF over prediction of financial crisis
...Advice by the Fund should stem from a complete understanding of not only macroeconomic, but also social and political settings of a country. Advice should be founded on hard evidence and driven by facts. Ideology should not play any role in analysis of facts,” Subbarao said at a seminar on strengthening IMF surveillance at the IMF spring meetings seminar in Washington on Tuesday. “The IMF must be open to criticism and advice.”........
Subba attacks obsolete IMF set-up
.........Subbarao trashed most of the principles on which the IMF had stood firm before the crisis and highlighted the new reality. "Pre-crisis, consensus was that every country should move towards a fully free capital account. The only questions were about timing and sequencing. Now we are not so sure. Pre-crisis consensus was that capital controls are bad always and everywhere. Now we are not so sure." ...........
Dividend payout ratio of banks: Is there need for a change?
..........The finance ministry should have consulted the RBI, if at all it was necessary to modify the dividend payout ratio of PSBs for whatever reasons, to avoid the predicament being faced by the public sector banks now ..........
Read - Moneylife
Govt banks may switch from gross salary to CTC for pay hike
As employees of state-owned banks bargain hard for a steep hike in wages, the finance ministry has asked Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to consider moving towards a cost-to-company (CTC) structure in the next pay settlement to reflect their actual remuneration including all perks and incentives. “If public sector banks have to run like a professional company then why not behave like one and move to CTC concept. We have given this suggestion to IBA,” .........
A complete HR overhaul
..... With new technology and competition from foreign and private sector banks, what PSBs need is a major generational leap on the human resources (HR) front. These banks must attract large numbers of young graduates and post-graduates from tier-I and tier-II management colleges through well-structured campus placements. .....
Pay PSU bankers more
..... One practical solution would be to recruit professionals from the private sector to fill in the vacancies. But the remuneration package comes in their way of tapping the pool of talent available.......
Cobrapost Tale has a Sting: RBI
The employees at ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank may have violated know-your-customer norms and helped clients evade taxes, the Reserve Bank of India’s investigation has found. “Banks opened current account based on power of attorney without KYC,” ET Now reported citing people familiar with the report. “Banks gave cash advances for gold purchases”, which is a violation of norms, it said...............
Read - ET
Read - ET
Cobrapost expose: Banking secretary to meet RBI official
Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru is likely to meet senior RBI officials on Thursday to decide about future course of action with regard to the allegation of money laundering by some staff of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank...........
Banker to the street: South Africa's FirstRand Bank sets up ATM in Dharavi slum
..........Essentially an investment bank, FirstRand has opened about 13,000 accounts. It has taken the Business Correspondent route rather than opening a branch. The ATM in Dharavi, that opened last month, has recorded about 2,000 transactions a month. In fact, the customer behaviour is an eyeopener in terms of choices. The fact that people are trading and living in a slum does not deter them from aspiring for a better quality of life............
Financial Reform
Much of the research on banking, the financial crisis and regulatory reform takes for granted that banks and the financial system must be as vulnerable to risks as they are, so that the failure of one bank can pull down the entire financial system. Some academic research suggests that this fragility might actually be a necessary by-product of the benefits banks provide to the economy. However, this work is based on assumptions under which fragility is indeed unavoidable, without assessing ..........Read - ET
Watch the video clip about the book
How banks dress books to meet loan, deposit growth targets
The loan growth numbers for most banks in FY13, despite being lower than their initial targets, would not have been as bad as the market was fearing, given the weakness in the economy. But a decent chunk of that growth could well be 'inorganic' in nature. Towards the end of a financial year seasoned bank chairpersons are known to use a few tricks of the trade to achieve RBI projected loan and deposit growth in the last seven days before their book closures. Call it window dressing or whatever, this is the traditional practice..........
‘Need to develop a fixed rate housing loan product of longer maturity’
RBI: Corp sales growth at lowest level post crisis
......Interestingly, the net profit of companies rose 23 per cent in Q3, on the back of similar growth in the previous quarter. During the third quarter of 2011-12, the net profit of these companies dipped 31.3 per cent. "Year-on-year growth rates of Ebitda (operating earnings) and net profits remained positive for a consecutive quarter, although they were lower than the previous quarter," RBI said..............
Banks step up vigil on gold loans
.............The finance ministry has also swung into action following the fall in gold prices. In an interview to Bloomberg, Rajiv Takru, secretary for financial services, said banks would review loans backed by gold and call for more collateral as the price of the metal falls. The central bank moved immediately to call on banks to review lending when gold prices began falling, Takru said.
Tumbling global gold price eats into RBI’s forex reserves
...........The value of RBI’s gold reserves—557.75 tonnes—declined from $34.08 billion (around Rs.1.84 trillion today) in September 2011, when the international gold price peaked at $1,900.23 per ounce (28.35 gram), to $24.17 billion early this week, when the yellow metal tumbled to its 26-month low of $1,347.95 per ounce. Economists and analysts are playing down the impact of this on the Indian central bank’s reserves as the decline in value is notional................
Gold loses its glitter
.....The RBI’s decision to strengthen the official yellow metal reserves to 560 tonnes had come amid growing interest of central banks across the world in diversifying their holdings to assets other than the dollar. China, too, has increased its gold holdings from 600 tonnes to 1,050 tonnes in the last few years. The reason: gold in the vault puts money a little further out of circulation because it is slightly more cumbersome to liquidate than, say, the euro........
Gold prices fall: Lock in your money in fixed deposits now
............"Banks may cut 25 basis points in the interest rates payable on short term fixed deposits that mature in less than one year and 50 basis points in interest rates payable on long term fixed deposits with maturities between one to three years,"...........
Time to know our onions
............The cheer could travel to the average consumer, if the RBI, sprinkles water on these little green shoots by slashing interest rates next month. The RBI uses monetary tools to stymie demand and cool prices. Rising inflation — which had forced the central bank to keep interest rates high — has hurt consumption demand, a strong edifice of the India growth story........
Maha Coop Act referred to joint select committee
....Maharashtra government will promulgate fresh ordinance on April 21 to amend the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, which envisages transparency and professionalism in the functioning of cooperative societies. It also aims to bring in democratic control in cooperative societies in the state..........
SEBI opens office in Lucknow
............“The Board has established its local office at Lucknow under the administrative control of its Northern Regional Office at New Delhi,” the regulator said in its notification issued today. The new office would cater to regulatory aspects of investor protection, financial as well as investor education and such other functions as may be assigned from time to time............
SBI cries foul as cash lured by funds slow savings
......India’s biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) says unequal rules are allowing money-market funds to lure savers away, extending the slowest growth in nation’s bank deposits in a decade and frustrating policy efforts to lower funding costs. “The biggest challenge for the banking system is to fend off competition from non-banks such as mutual funds, debt funds, liquid mutual funds and tax-free bond funds, who are all having an unfair advantage,” ..........
Nabard lending crosses Rs1 trillion in FY13
....Nabard’s lending grew 32% from Rs 81,000 crore in the previous year mainly due to increased support to cooperative banks and regional rural banks...........
Read - Mint
Read - Mint
Centre opposes PIL against SEBI chief
.....The Centre, on Wednesday, opposed in the Supreme Court a plea seeking removal of SEBI Chairman U. K. Sinha on grounds of alleged irregularities in his appointment, saying the charges against him were false as he recently acted against corporates, including Sahara......
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Union Bank new office in Varanasi
Bank On The Right Bank
When starting your entrepreneurial career, it matters who you choose to associate with. Your choice of partnership at this stage could make or break your start-up. So, take a step back and think as many times as it takes before you partner with someone. Even that reputed bank. A bank, which carries out your daily transactions and lends you money from time to time to fund your business activities must be chosen after considering a variety of factors. Here’s what a first-time entrepreneur should look for in a bank while opening an account for business purposes............
Customers should demand good services from banks - RBI Deputy Governor
 |
| .................."If banks do not provide proper service, then it is wrong to blame the RBI. Customers should either demand proper services from the bank or leave the bank,"................. |
Will this 79-year old’s protest move the government and the RBI to stop mis-selling by banks?
.......I wrote to the RBI Governor Dr Subbarao, SEBI chairman UK Sinha, RBI Deputy Governor Dr KC Chakrabarty and the revenue secretary Sumit Bose about Mr Sharma’s case on 12thApril. As usual, they have maintained a complete silence. To us, the deliberate cheating of senior citizens and women—who are the biggest targets for banksters—is a bigger problem the same bankers laying out a red carpet for those with political black money to be laundered.............
Hurdles to new financial code
........ So what does the FSLRC Report say that is so upsetting and why is it upsetting to so many people? In its essence, the report says that the regulatory structure for the Indian financial system is old, based as it is on some laws which are more than 140 years old. Old itself is not the problem; the issue is a piece-meal approach to financial sector regulation that has resulted in a ground-level mess with multiple regulators and large regulatory cracks...........
Interview with Justice Srikrishna, Chairman, FSLRC
.....The burden of financial inclusion cannot always be thrown on the regulated entities. If financial inclusion means development of the regulated entities to expand the scope of their activities so as to benefit larger numbers, that is legitimate scope of the regulator and can be done by the regulators. If financial inclusion is intended to achieve a social purpose that is not the legitimate scope of the regulator, then it becomes a part of the government’s policy and the government is obligated to compensate the regulated entities which have to carry the additional cost of such financial inclusion.............
Read.........
Rural Bank Norms May Stump New Aspirants
A large number of non-banking finance companies have less then 10% presence in rural areas, data shows. The statistics portend trouble for companies eager to get licence for banking..........
An unusual commission
.....This brings me to the division of work between Reserve Bank and the finance ministry. Before the 1991 reforms, the situation was simple. Government made policy in so many fields with so many instruments that their coordination could only be done in Delhi. No one ever thought of independence of the central bank. Governor of Reserve Bank was just one cog in the machinery of controls. When the reforms came, the lightning liberalization was done in Delhi. There was no question of Reserve Bank being part of it: the external economic situation was dire, and Reserve Bank was left alone to tackle it with the extremely intrusive instruments it used. Reserve Bank officials were in love with their controls; they liked to think that they were the only patriots at a time when those in Delhi had sold out to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank........
Financial inclusion
.....The present licensing policy for opening branches is that individual banks can open any number of branches in rural, semi-urban and unbanked centres. The RBI permits opening branches in urban and metro centres based on the bank’s performance on opening branches at other centres. Will the corporates applying for new bank licence open branches in unbanked areas before leaping to lucrative markets?.............
Bad loans
This is with reference to the article “Economy is not the villain” (Business Line,April 12). It has been assertively pointed out that poor credit appraisal and improper monitoring of the loan operations are the main reasons for the bad loans in banks. Nevertheless, the slow down in the economy cannot be pointed out as the major reasons for bad loans. If it is so, private banks must also show increasing NPAs. The best way to monitor loans and prevent bad loans is to appoint a RBI nominee in the board of corporates with above Rs 100 crore borrowing from banks.
- N. R. Nagarajan (HBL)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)