St. Patrick students enter RBI quiz zonal finals

Kickstarting the country-wide Reserve Bank of India quiz competition, students from Puducherry schools battled it out for a place in the zonal finals of RBIQ on Tuesday. St. Patrick Matriculation Higher Secondary School won the Puducherry round and will now compete in the zonal finals of RBIQ to be held in Chennai on November 7. Defending team, Petit Seminaire Higher Secondary School, was the runners-up. Six teams from a total of 93 reached the quarter final stage, according to a release from the institution. V. Vasanthan, Chief General Manager, RBI, Chennai, said the quiz was aimed at building a connect between the institution and the students . Lloyd Saldhana from Greycaps was the quiz master.

The Hindu

RBI school quiz

Pune : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct an all-India inter-school quiz to create awareness and interest about the history and role of the central bank, other banking institutions, economics and current affairs. The Pune edition of the quiz will be held on August 11 between 9 am and 12.30 pm at the MES auditorium of the Maharashtra Education Society. It will be conducted by Lloyd Saldanha. Students from class IX to XII are eligible to participate and can register at http://www.cab.org.in 

TOI

Need to review banking structure

My View on  "Tweaking guidelines won’t do; RBI needs to re-thin...": 

A well argued article. When the 'experiments' of RRBs and LABs happened, life was not this fast and 'globalisation' was yet to happen. Need of the hour is a review of the entire institutional structure in banking keeping in view the interests of all stakeholders. Only RBI can do this. Vested interests are diverting central bank's attention to less important aspects of banking. RBI has a history of institution building to meet needs of the time. SBI, UTI, IDBI, SIDBI, NABARD, Exim Bank, RRBs and the failed LABs are some examples to recall. Now, the role and structure of existing institutions need to be redefined and new institutions introduced to meet the needs of changing times. There are no 'business models' to copy. FSLRC which should have had a look at the position strayed away into unexpected pastures.

I am sure this article will explore possibilities of an overhaul of the institutional structure providing financial services in India (including banks) when it appears in ET. 

- M G Warrier, Mumbai 

Money or no Money, Modi's SAARC bank is good idea

.........Sure, a poor SAARC bank cannot compete with the World Bank, the new BRICS initiative or even the Asian Development Bank. But the thought behind the process seems to be refreshing: to have a multilateral lending agency for the region, which will not impose conditions or seek structural changes in governance to create business opportunities for donor nations. The SAARC bank will not work if it is modelled on existing behemoths that feed huge bureaucracies in world capitals. Also, New Delhi shouldn't try to play the big brother and curtail voting rights or choices of the smaller stakeholders. Anyway, the SAARC bank cannot be a runaway success as.......

Read - ET

Can India Achieve Financial Inclusion within the Next Few Years?

........The Finance Minister also put his weight behind the recent financial sector reform design of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Connecting every Indian family with the formal financial system within a year is a steep aspiration. And while it might take it little longer, a recent visit to India convinced me that over the past few months, the pieces have come together for India to make huge progress...............

Read..........

Big Daddy banks will need to bulk up capital

...........A holistic consideration of all the criteria would throw up, as likely candidates for the systemically important tag, the following: State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. Foreign banks may not meet the size criterion but the RBI is likely to consider a few of them as systemically important, given their exposure to the derivatives market and specialised services. Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank may fit the bill here. These likely ‘too-big-to-fail’ banks will be required to set aside more capital........

Read - HBL

Shield for big banks on way

..........The RBI will follow a two-step process to identify such banks. In the first step, the sample of banks to be assessed for their systemic importance will be decided. This will be followed by a detailed study to fix their scores and rank. Though smaller banks are likely to be excluded, the central bank has said that it will consider a few large foreign banks despite their relatively smaller balance sheet size..........

Read - The Telegraph

RBI working on bankruptcy exit system

........“We have a tendency in India that we do not like failures. We think everybody should pass and have distinction. We do not have a culture to accept failures. How to create that? There is a thinking in Reserve Bank, we have been thinking how to create a system so that people should voluntarily withdraw from an unattractive business,” RBI Executive Director B. Mahapatra said in his address on “Managing Stressed Assets” organised by Assocham..........

Read - The Hindu

Fear of gold

.............What’s also worth keeping in mind is that while household physical savings rose from 10.8% of GDP in FY08 to 14.8% in FY13, this was exceeded by the 6.1 percentage point fall in government and corporate savings. In other words, blaming just households is unfair. Equally important, as long as global gold prices were rising, to a peak of $1,744 per troy ounce in the December 2012 quarter, imports kept surging even though import duties were hiked. It is when the global growth picture started improving that gold prices began falling........

Read - FE

Playing His Master’s Voice does not work with Modi

...........However, drawing a similarity between Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi on the issue of their ‘common passion’ for gold was possibly the most stupid thing, which both the Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan and Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher learnt within weeks after Modi became the PM. Of the two bureaucrats, Rajan was cleverer. On May 20, RBI issued a new guideline for gold import that allowed few select trading houses, in addition to already permitted banks, to procure the precious metal to ‘boost exports.’ RBI’s export-linkage clause, the biggest irritant before gold merchants outside the higher import duty, remained untouched. While Modi was probably happy with Rajan’s half-action that gave an impression of easing import norms in keeping with the new PM’s wishes to please the country’s largest bullion trading and jewelry export community,...........

Read - The Shillong Times

HPSCB launches RuPay KCC Debit Card

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today launched the ATM RuPay KCC Debit Card of Himachal Pradesh State Co-operative Bank (HPSCB) for its customers and the Bank has become the first Co-operative Bank in the country to do so. After launching the ATM card the Chief Minister said that the customers of the State have confidence and faith in the bank and more such branches require to be opened in the far-flung and remote areas of the State to benefit the people living therein........

Read........

RBI cancels registration certificate of Dectsche Securities

............."RBI cancels Certificate of Registration of Deutsche Securities India Pvt Ltd (DSIPL)," RBI said in a release. RBI said it cancelled the certificate of registration of the non-banking financial company (NBFCs) for carrying on the business of non-banking financial institution. "Following cancellation of registration certificate, the company cannot transact the business of non-banking financial institution," it added. 

Read - ET

YES Bank wanted to remove Kapur as promoter: Counsel

........The counsel said RBI, in a reply to Rana Kapoor, managing director and chief executive officer of YES Bank, in January 2013, had said the regulator would agree to change Kapur's promoter status if two conditions were met. The first condition was that Kapur's shareholding should be brought down to less than five per cent before March 31, 2014; and Kapoor should also bring down his shareholding to less than 10 per cent in the same time period. However...........

Read | Business Standard

Private banks gear up to issue infra bonds

............"In accordance with the recent RBI guidelines on issue of long-term bonds by banks - financing of infrastructure and affordable housing - the board of YES Bank has approved raising Rs 3,000 crore of long-term bonds, and the bank now intends to seek shareholder approval for the same,"............

Read | Business Standard

Here's Why Subbarao Will Not Take Up a Finance or Govt Job

...........But Duvvuri Subbarao, the immediate past Governor of the RBI, is steadfast in declining offers from financial services firms, and will not take up anything with the government either. “If I take up anything in financial services, I would be paid disproportionately to what I actually contribute,“ says Subbarao. “I would be paid for my past designations rather than what I do.“ Indeed, Subbarao is leading a different life than many of his peers, though he misses being important these days..........

Read - ET

TN files highest number of maintainable complaints with Banking Ombudsman

Tamil Nadu has seen the highest number of maintainable complaints filed with the Banking Ombudsman during the year 2013-14, with almost 76% of the complaints filed were maintainable, says U Chiranjeevi, Banking Omudsman, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Chennai. The area has seen an increase of 21% in terms of complaints against Banks with the Office of the Banking Ombudsman during the year 2013-14, he said. The highest number of complaints were against State Bank of India (SBI) and its associate banks during the period,...........

Read | Business Standard

Politics & economics inter twined

...........Today we have the Board for Financial Supervision and the Board for Payment and Settlement Systems. The Financial Stability Unit conducts macro- prudential surveillance for financial system on an on- going basis.The RBI has evolved as one of the most respected institutions in India with the active support of the Government.This is a very useful and thought- provoking book with articles of a high calibre by outstanding experts in several fields. Space constraint has restricted us from covering all contributors.

Read - FPJ (Book Review by P.P.Ramachandran)

Budget creates confusion about retirement products

...............While there is a mention of ‘Uniform tax treatment for pension fund and mutual fund linked retirement plans’, no one is clear about what he really meant. Put it down to shoddy work by the officials in the finance ministry, who as usual have no truck with the savers and their issues...........

Read - Moneylife

RBI quiz contest

The Reserve Bank of India, Kochi, as part of its initiative in promoting financial literacy, will organise a quiz competition for school students of Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Idukki districts on August 6......

Read - The Hindu

On pensions, it is rank injustice

............“OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pensions of the current pensioners and the past pensioners and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.”.........

Read - The Hindu

TReDS to facilitate financing of trade receivables of MSMEs: RBI

........... In its draft guideline on TReDS, RBI said that this will from corporate buyers through multiple financiers. The TReDS will facilitate the discounting of both invoices as well as bills of exchange. Further, as the underlying entities are the same (MSMEs and corporate buyers) the TReDS could deal with both receivables factoring as well as reverse factoring so that higher transaction volumes come into the system and facilitate in better pricing............

Read | Business Standard

Reforms on loan waiver needed

My View on  "Contingent liabilities of states a cause for conce...": 

The suggestions are worthy of immediate attention by the GoI. It is also desirable to consider either a separate legislation or as part of the overall legislative reform of financial sector, that all the State Governments be barred from either announcing or implementing the write-off of loans issued by the banks for any category. Even Government of India shall indulge in this compulsive act only under extraordinary circumstances of severe natural calamities affecting various parts of the country from out of a separate Calamity Relief Fund to be set up with participation from the State Governments, NABARD, commercial banks and Insurance Companies. What is uninsurable alone should qualify for such waiver that should be approved by the Parliament. Several State Governments in their annual Budgets should clearly spell out specifically such write-off amounts issued under a guarantee mechanism or public borrowing facility. 

- Dr.Yerram Raju

FinMin wants banks to be exempt from CSR spend

............ationalised banks are incorporated under the Nationalised Bank Act. Though it is not clear if public-sector banks also need to spend on CSR activities - Reserve Bank of India laws allow them to make donations - the finance ministry wants all banks to be exempted from the stipulation for now. If the corporate affairs ministry agrees to the request, it will be a big relief for banks, particularly the public-sector ones. The move comes at a time when the government is constrained in infusing capital.............

Read | Business Standard

NRI woman gypped of Rs.4.97L by cyber crook

.......The caller claimed to be a bank official and told the victim that she hadn’t been operating her bank account regularly and that the bank was contemplating closing her account if she didn’t want to operate it. “The woman said she would not want to get her account deactivated, after which the caller asked for her net-banking details for verification. The unsuspecting woman then gave her net-banking details to the caller, believing him to be a bank official. After the phone call, the woman received an alert from the bank, informing her of a transfer of Rs4.97 lakh from her account,”..........

Read - DNA

Seven reasons why TDS provisions are draconian & flawed

The citizens of this country are punished due to some draconian provisions in the Income Tax (I-T) Act, Rules and notifications. They could even be taken for a ride about the constitutional legality of tax deducted at source (TDS). Harassment because of TDSprovisions began under the Congress-led government but nobody has bothered to listen to the woes of lakhs of taxpayers. Here are some thoughts on behalf of tortured taxpayers, for consideration by a government that has promised Achche Din for all of us............

Read - Moneylife

Infra bond norms a plus for Indian banks: Moodys

..............The new regulations are also expected to foster an improvement of banks' competitive positioning vis-à-vis housing finance and infrastructure finance companies. Moody's said banks' lower cost of funding allows them to be much more competitive on pricing. This is especially relevant for basic mortgages, where price competition is already intense, forcing housing finance companies to operate with thin margins..........

Read | Business Standard

India and Canada should collaborate on global monetary reform

........In April, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan joined other emerging-market leaders in a call for better international monetary policy coordination and centralization of liquidity swaps at the IMF. A short-term liquidity facility at the Fund would be cheaper, more widely shared, and easier to monitor than the growing welter of bilateral swaps. It would also make rapid access to liquidity in times of crisis more equitable. But the US shut the idea down, just as it did in 2011. In the face of the US intransigence on both swaps and the reform of voting rights in the IMF, India seems to be throwing in the towel. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently upped its swap line with the Bank of Japan from $15bn to $50bn and India will be part of the $100bn framework of currency swaps announced last week under the BRICS's Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). .............

Read - HT

RBI relaxes norms for loans against gold ornaments

..........."Banks, as per their Board approved policy, may decide upon the ceiling with regard to the quantum of loans that may be granted against the pledge of gold jewellery and ornaments for non-agricultural end uses," RBI said in a notification. The apex bank said it has received representations from banks requesting to increase the prescribed ceiling and to review other conditions applicable for loans against pledge of gold ornaments and jewellery, where both interest and principal are payable at maturity...........

Read | Business Standard

Inflation: the war is still on

...........There will undoubtedly be pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reduce interest rates if inflation continues to decline. Indian companies with too much debt in their balance sheets will likely be at the forefront of these demands. Yet, it should be remembered that India still has very high inflation. A sustainable economic revival is not possible unless inflation is much lower than its current level. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan is absolutely correct when he says that there is no trade-off between inflation and growth at this juncture. (More technically, the sacrifice ratio is zero right now because the function charting inflation and growth is convex rather than a straight line.) It is heartening that finance minister Arun Jaitley has implicitly endorsed this view in his early statements.............

Read - Mint

WhatsApp users in the country have started a campaign asking people to boycott onions and tomatoes for a week to 10 days to bring down prices. Tomato prices have doubled to Rs 80/kg after supply in the state went down following a disease in the plants. Even Himachal Pradesh has cut down on supplies, following heavy rains. Onions are currently retailing at Rs 30-40/kg. But it is expected to go up. The campaign is likely to add chillies to its list as prices have soared to Rs 90/kg. Word about the no “onion & tomato” week (from July 22-30) has been spreading like wildfire........

Read - DNA

We hope to see some softening in rates by end of calendar year: Shikha Sharma

Shikha Sharma, managing director and chief executive officer of Axis Bank, said that corporate loan demand still remains weak, even though retail demand has held steady. Sharma expects a pick-up in loan offtake by the end of the year and also expects interest rates to start softening slowly. Edited excerpts:

Read - Mint

Curb inflation through competition reforms

...............Competition reforms can help growth, improve governance and check unnatural inflation, at least in the medium term. Unnatural inflation mostly occurs when there are supply side constraints, which the Reserve Bank of India has also flagged. These constraints are due to various reasons, including entry barriers or lack of enforcement. Incumbents create artificial entry barriers to curb competition, which goes hand in hand with governance deficit.............

Read - Mint

IIT, IIM grads among 27,000 applicants for 15 Bandhan posts

............“We expected this kind of response to our advertisement. One of the criteria for these jobs will be candidates’ willingness to align with the Bandhan philosophy: Working with the poor. We need people from different strata. So, while highly qualified professionals are needed, so are plain graduates,”.............

Read | Business Standard News

Banks Preparing for the Future Usher in A Tech-Tonic Change

.....What scores of banks and bank nationalisation could not achieve in the past four decades -financial inclusion -may become a reality considering the way banking is evolving because of technology and smart phones, which are bringing the universe to the palms of people in remote villages. That is good news for both banks and their customers. It improves profitability for the financial intermediary and makes banking hassle-free for customers. They will no longer have to wait in long queues and maintain files of bank documents..........

Read - ET

Ration card's out, bank on Aadhaar

.........In a circular dated July 17 addressed to banks, the RBI said that it has revised its “know your customer“ guidelines with the government's prevention of money laundering norms. One of the changes is that the RBI has now specified “officially valid documents“ to be the Aadhaar card, voter ID card, permanent account number (PAN) card, driving licence, passport, or the NREGA card. The list is identical to the earlier list except for one change. The earlier definition also included “any other document as may be required by the banking company or financial institution or intermediary“. This has now been replaced with “any document notified by the central government“............

Read - TOI

Financial inclusion again

.........What makes the planned financial inclusion move all the more curious is that the government has publicly stated it plans to work on giving more autonomy to banks. It would be interesting to know how bank boards feel about opening so many new accounts and with the kind of overdraft facilities being talked about.

Read - FE

Indian Banking Comes a Full Circle – No Model Is Right Model

..........How is that in a matter of few months that the regulator buys two different arguments, and grants the opposite wishes?  Is the regulator framing policies for the industry, or individual cases determine what the policy is? The irony is that this is not the first time that the Indian financial sector is undergoing gender reassignment, but the second time in less than two decades. In the 90s, .............

Read - ET

45 years of Bank Nationaliastion in India

........On the 45^th anniversary All India Bank Officers Confederation celebrated the day and said that with nationalization, the priorities of the banking sector changed from ‘Class Banking’ to ‘Mass Banking’. ’The functioning has progressed from manual operations to sophisticated technology. The social banking in our country has not only passed the test of time but also exceeded the expectations. They withstood the global collapse of many big banks in 2007 and our economy was cushioned from crumbling because of the public sector character of our Banks.................

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

'Post offices can boost financial inclusion'

.............. “There is a need to create financial identity in rural and semi-urban areas in order to support and strengthen financial inclusion. This can be achieved by promoting financial literacy; and, the post office can easily access this base.” He said the presence of post offices in rural areas is a major asset that can be used to attain financial inclusion. He proposed that the banking system..........

Read - Deccan Herald

After opening doors to differentiated banks, RBI now reviews Islamic banking norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun the process of reviewing regulations on Islamic banking in India. The central bank has set up an internal committee to examine the matter, according to two persons familiar with the development, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Islamic banking, practiced in some countries, especially in the Middle East, follows Shariah law. The model differs from conventional banking on.....

Read........

Policy changes boost confidence in Indian banks

.....Policymakers are stepping up efforts to make lenders more resilient after the Reserve Bank of India warned of increased risks to their stability last month. The return on equity of local banks, a gauge of profitability, fell to 9.6 per cent as of March 31, the lowest since at least 2002, the RBI said in a June 26 report. Earnings shrank as economic growth near a decade-low curbed lending and led to higher provisions for bad loans. Under the new rules for long-term debt offerings, banks may.........

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

Payments banks for Rs.10 deposit

.............Some people call it an example of genuine liberation and reform, something that has the potential to unlock the value at the bottom of the pyramid. Other RBI watchers are happily stunned at the guidelines—this is as drastic as not launching a Mars rocket, but putting a man there! But the pushback from old banks has begun: the most-repeated argument is that these banks will not be viable, they will fail, the economics doesn’t work. In the candid voice of an old industry veteran in finance: bar one or two, most other existing banks are not really “in the money”. It’s not as if they know how to stay solvent themselves that they can push back on payments banks. In fact, this is a win-all. The new banks will force the old ones to get more efficient and get over lazy banking...................

Read - Mint

Small, payments banks in the making

...................“We find it as a progressive move by RBI. With payments banks coming in, you will see innovations and consumers will benefit in terms of every day transactions. Remittance will become simpler and convenient. It will also open doors to sell spot loan products to the unbanked population,”...................

Read - Mint

Six mega banks to be under RBI watch

About four to six banks may be designated as domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) under various buckets, the RBI said on Tuesday as it unveiled the framework for identifying systemically important banks. D-SIBs will also be subjected to differentiated supervisory requirements and higher intensity of supervision based on the risks they pose to the financial system the RBI said...........

Read - Deccan Chronicle

Local area banks hopeful on RBI move

...........There are four LABs in the country which are functioning satisfactorily, said the banking regulator. However these are not considered scheduled banks, a hindrance for them in getting certain benefits. "One of the advantages of getting a scheduled bank status is that smaller loans are covered under the credit guarantee scheme. We, the LABs, are not eligible for this," said T Eswara Chandra Rao, managing director of Coastal Bank, an LAB licenced by RBI in 1999...........

Read | Business Standard

India’s Payment Banks: What’s not in there – Anand Raman

...........On a final note, here is something completely out of the box to think about. The RBI exercises full control over monetary policy, printing currency, declassifying notes and managing the level of cash/liquidity in the economy. In the opinion of this writer, it would be revolutionary if the RBI simply decided to take on the job of issuing “digital currency” to the PBs against cash deposits they maintain in a pooled account with the central bank – very similar to what every BC in this country already does for its distribution / channel partners today for remittances and every Telco with prepaid talk time. Technologically it is fairly straightforward to implement. It provides 100% CRR, ensures Zero Risk. As the central bank also settles funds across the financial network, interchange and cash management fees can be reduced drastically promoting a less-cash revolution – something that the RBI has passionately argued for............

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RBI to start announcing too-big-to-fail banks in Aug 2015

..............They are complex institutions but RBI says that about 4-6 banks would come under the category of Systemically Important, they will be asked to keep additional capital. All this kicks in from August 2015 and every August thereafter the set of banks will be revised to check whether some of them have fallen off or some new banks have come into the Systemically Important category. So, the worry is coming in a distance away..........

Read.........

Arun Jaitley calls for World Bank governance reforms

...........“Finance minister Jaitley, while complimenting the World Bank president for setting the twin global goals (of removal of global poverty and increasing shared prosperity), also stressed on capital increase and the need for voice reforms in the bank so that not only does the bank play its global role in poverty reduction and development, but also reflects the emerging world order in its governance,”.................

Read - Mint

Time for a SAARC bank

............This is the reason why India should take the lead for a new SAARC Development Bank (SDB). This will help supplement the capital flows that may take place through other multilateral institutions. Being anchored within South Asia, it would work as a regional development bank. The SDB would leverage its own capital base for raising tier 2 capital, as also borrowing long-term funds based upon its balance sheet strength. China is already pitching an Asia Infrastructure Development Bank to India. There is no doubt that China sees this as an opportunity to expand its project exports markets in Asia. While India could partner China to a limited extent in this concept, its own long-term future interests are more ........

Read - FE

A page from history: 70 years before the Brics bank

............. Much has been written about how the global power that came to dominate the post-war world got its way against the older power that was soon to be cut down to size by decolonization. But the transcripts also show how the Indians punched way above their weight. So did delegates from Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Greece and Norway, according to the editors of the transcripts. One issue should interest all those who currently worry that the New Development Bank that will be set up by the Brics nations will be a tool of Chinese hegemony.................

Read - Mint

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPLICATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF MERGERS

The talk of bank mergers is thicker in the air now, than never before.  It is reliably learnt that the government at the centre is really serious this time, as this subject has been touched under Point No.129 on Page No.24 of Union Budget for 2014-15 submitted in the Indian Parliament by Hon’ble Finance Minister on 10-07-2014.   So, what is in the offing?  What will be the effect of bank mergers?  What do mergers mean to ordinary employees?  What are their implications and consequences?  Whether bank mergers are good or bad in Indian context?  We will analyse all these points from various perspectives hereunder............

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Is the HDFC Bank dream run over?

...............Even from the perspective of last six months, HDFC Bank has been an underperformer in the markets, with both ICICI Bank and Axis Bank being the preferred choice of investors. Kotak Securities believes that its underperformance is expected to continue as both ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have been progressing well on retail loan strategy, reduced/slowed exposure in select corporate sectors, a diversified fee income and a well-capitalised tier I ratio of greater than 12 per cent.............

Read | Business Standard

Incipient recovery on the anvil for India: SBI

An ‘incipient recovery’ is round the corner for the Indian economy and it is expected to clock a GDP growth rate of 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal amid signs of improved sentiment on consumer spending and the monsoon, says a report. As various macro-economic indicators ranging from inflation to external sector are showing positive signs, “an incipient recovery is round the corner”, said the SBI research report...........

Read - Deccan Herald

RBI to continue as govt's debt manager

The Reserve Bank of India is likely to continue as the government's debt manager. Finance Ministry is internally firming up its view on not giving any statutory status to the much debated public debt management agency and instead allowing RBI to continue managing Centre's borrowing programme. The issue remains that the RBI will continue to be the chief manager of the central government’s borrowing program....................

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Tweaking guidelines won’t do; RBI needs to re-think the idea of niche banks ab initio

............Despite the underwhelming performance of both regional rural banks (RRBs) and local area banks (LABs) set up with the same well-meaning intent of financial inclusion, the RBI is determined to try again! Hence its recent draft guidelines on payments banks and small banks based on the well-meaning, but naïve and theoretical recommendations of the Nachiket Mor committee. Clearly the Bank (governor?) seems keen to give to a second life to an idea that many have (rightly) written off. Only time will tell whether it’s a case of flogging a dead horse or whether this time it’s going to be different, even if it comes after a number of false and costly starts. Remember, restructuring of RRBs did not come cheap!............

Read - ET

Justice out of context

My View on  "Justice Srikrishna defends FSLRC recommendations": 

The present defence of FSLRC stance on RBI confirms the fear expressed by some including this writer that the Commission did not take into account the Indian context and the evolution and present position of Reserve bank of India. To oppose Dr Rajan’s view expressed in June 2014, Justice Srikrishna is quoting from 2009 documents. After that Dr Raghuram Rajan had opportunity to learn much more about India and RBI. The position RBI Governor takes now is that of India’s central bank and old ‘circumstantial’ evidences should not be relied upon to oppose it. Professional views based on hard facts will get precedence over ‘old academic’ views. As Dr Rajan is used to being subjected to personal attacks, the FSLRC Chairman will have to do lot of elaboration to defend the FSLRC recommendations in the Indian context. 

- M.G.Warrier

Narendra Modi joining Raghuram Rajan to boost banks fuels confidence

............ncreased policy support may help shore up profitability now at a 12-year low, according to CARE Ratings, at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan’s efforts to rein in bad loans are starting to show results. Non-performing debt as a proportion of total advances fell to 4% as of 31 March from 4.2% in September, which was the highest since 2005-2006, RBI reported in June........

Read - Mint

Mendacity is a system of lies

...............This is a point not dwelt upon by academics today, and we should all be concerned that proponents of big government like Alan Blinder, Jennet Yellen.............

Read - The Global ANALYST

Scam e-mail messages in the name of RBI

.......The RBI also spends money on warning advertisements. However, in our experience of meeting people over hundreds of seminars and workshops conducted by Moneylife Foundation (a not-for-profit sister entity) is, that financial literacy cannot work with sporadic advertisements from regulators. It has far more impact if financial literacy is imparted in a serious and systematic manner with an explanation of how scams work and their financial consequences. Making the nation financially literate or even more careful is a herculean task, but a little nudge from the RBI to corporate CEOs would go a long way in ensuring that this becomes a part of the awareness training for all employees.......

Read - Moneylife

Financial Products Tailor-Made For Women

.........According to the latest data available with the Reserve Bank of India the share of women deposit holders has also witnessed a rise from 26 per cent in 2012 to 30 per cent in 2013. Thankfully, financial service providers have been quick to ride this wave and there are a  number of women-centric products that offer special advantages. Here is a closer look at some such benefits........

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Retirement Is Not End Of Taxes, Inflation

..........People who are in their 70s and 80s had retired at a time when inflation was not a big menace and most banks paid a rate of interest which was either close to or around the doubledigit mark. But times have changed. The rate of interest paid by banks in fixed deposits is now very much linked to the rate of inflation and, more often than not, they are lower than the inflation rate. This naturally leaves FD customers in a slightly disadvantageous position as they are usually left with a negative real rate of interest (rate of interest ­ rate of inflation). Added to this is the incidence of income tax on some of the retired people. The two combine to force retired people to either dip into their savings corpus to meet their standards of liv ing, or cut down on expenses to manage with whatever income they generate on their retirement corpus...........

Read - TOI

PAN’s the way to ‘cheque’ refund status

............. To check the refund status online, one must log into https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin.html and enter your PAN and assessment year. One can even check through the toll free number of SBI help desk at 18004259760 or even via email to itro@sbi.co.in or refunds@incometaxindia.gov.in. One can see the status messages depending on the actual state of processing or if there are any disparities noticed by the department. The assessee can ........

Read - FE

State Bank of Hyderabad Donates Bus to School

State Bank of Hyderabad MD & GE P Pradeep Kumar handing over the bus key to Sriram Charitable Trust managing trustee Uma Ghurka at Ghattuppal in Nalgonda district on Sunday. Others in the picture are State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur MD B Sriram, SBH MD Santanu Mukherjee and CGM (commercial banking) Jyoti Ghosh, RBI CGM Vijay Chugh and Oriental Bank of Commerce former CMD KN Prithviraj.......

Read - The New Indian Express

Reserve bank of India organizing RBI quiz

......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. Governor of RBI Raghuram Rajan is expected to distribute prizes to the top winners.........

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Man held for allegedly duping a Mumbai Coin Society member of Rs1.16 lakh

..................In August last year, while going through an online shopping portal, the victim found that a rare ten rupee note dated 1960, signed by the then RBI governor LK Jha, was up for sale. He then contacted the mobile number of the seller and got the deal done for Rs45,000 for the note. Later, a person by the name of Anand Mehta got into a deal with the victim for a Persian Gulf note and a pre-independence five rupee Indian note containing the photograph of King George. In order to get these notes, the victim had deposited Rs1.16 lakh in the bank account referred by Mehta............

Read - DNA

A commendable move

........... There are also other indicators on bank notes — various shapes displayed in raised print — to represent particular denominations. These can be felt by touch only on new bank notes. But it can still be hard to decipher the values they connote. Similarly, there are in circulation today coins of the same denomination in different sizes (two rupees), as also coins of different denominations in the same size (50 paise and one rupee). Besides, there are three types of five-rupee coins, all of which can cause confusion to the blind. Standardisation and consistency in coin design could ensure the distinctness of each value. Wavy edges and hexagonal shapes were present in coins that have been withdrawn...........

Read - The Hindu

Forum tells RBI to take steps to save consumers

......................The forum urged Reserve Bank of India to take strict action against firms indulging in malpractices. "We have been witnessing this kind of malpractices in different cases. We have also pointed out in our earlier orders that Government of India and RBI should take strict action against such organizations which is necessary for the protection of the right of the customers," said East District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum..............

Read - TOI

Can't bank on service

.........If you visit a bank with small denomination currency notes or to exchange a damaged currency note, the experience is not encouraging. Banks are even reluctant to dispense small denomination notes and coins. For traders, handling a large volume of small denominations received during the course of their business continues to be a problem. Thus, a large pool of small sums of money remains outside the banking system, leading to .........

Read | Business Standard

Small banks, big risks

..........Financial inclusion as an asset category is full of risks and even the new small banks cannot de-risk their business model. Payment banks would, of course, be up for grabs. Had the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced small banks first, there would have been more applicants for this category. RBI has been focusing only on .............

Read | Business Standard

Bank Told to Refund Pre-closure Charges

...............The Forum observed that a circular issued by the RBI say that levying of pre-closure charges on home loans amounts deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. The Forum stated that in the case under consideration, the bank was liable to refund the pre-closure charges, with interest, from the date of complaint until realisation...........

Read - The New Indian Express

This is no way to tame inflation: economist

...........The monetary policy of RBI is far removed from them in terms of price rise. That apart, the monetary policy is creating purchasing power asymmetry among different social classes. Consumers who are benefited by monetary reforms are not large enough to reduce the price of essential commodities. The market, which the monetary reforms could not influence normally, pushes the price higher; such markets exist beyond the RBI’s monetary measures. It is interesting to note that ........

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Gradually build countercyclical buffers: RBI panel to banks

...........The report was prepared by an internal working group on implementing CCCB in India, headed by RBI Executive Director B Mahapatra. The report said the credit-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio would be used to take decisions related to the CCCB. Factors such as growth in gross non-performing assets, incremental credit-deposit ratio for three years, interest coverage ratio and house price index also be considered..........

Read | Business Standard

Need to bolster our reserves

...............Besides short-term debt, sharp swings in capital flows are also a contingency that must be kept in mind in judging whether or not our reserves are adequate. This was highlighted by the SS Tarapore committee on capital account convertibility way back in 1997. One precondition was that cumulative portfolio investment inflows and short-term debt must not be more than 60 per cent of our foreign exchange reserves. In other words, our forex reserves must be plentiful – in fact, with a margin to spare — to take care of heightened volatility in capital flows in and out of the Indian economy and to meet our most pressing debt obligations without defaulting!............

Read - FPJ

Infra bond norms a plus for Indian banks: Moodys

.................The new regulations are also expected to foster an improvement of banks' competitive positioning vis-à-vis housing finance and infrastructure finance companies. Moody's said banks' lower cost of funding allows them to be much more competitive on pricing. This is especially relevant for basic mortgages, where............

Read | Business Standard

Needed: A modern bankruptcy law for India’s financial markets

........Banks and NBFCs recovered loans through muscle men who even resorted to physical assault. Small borrowers faced hard times as they had borrowed to go with the tide of consumerism without being able to predict the disaster. Reports of suicides by defaulters surfaced. The Reserve Bank of India was forced to intervene and court orders were passed to stop banks from using muscle men. During this period voices for review of the personal insolvency laws surfaced. The terms insolvency and bankruptcy are not synonymous, though both deal with liabilities exceeding assets — insolvency refers to a ‘financial state’ and bankruptcy to the distinct legal ‘private state’. The laws regulating insolvency are the Presidency Town Insolvency Act of 1909 covering Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai and the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 for the rest of India.......

Read - FE