.......“To
ensure that the banks give adequate attention to financial inclusion,
they must view this as a viable business proposition rather than as a
corporate social responsibility or a regulatory obligation. For the
business to remain viable, it would be important to focus on increasing
usage of existing banking infrastructure,”
said KC Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of RBI, and one of the vociferous
proponent of financial inclusion for several years. Any banker, of
course in private, will tell you how ridiculous these rules are and how
much time they have to spend to overcome these, rather than fulfilling
them. Public sector banks are the ones who have borne the brunt of these
rules. In the process,..........
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.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
HCBL Bank targetting beggars for financial inclusion
...........In India, this is probably the only bank catering to this segment (beggars). So far, the Bank has already opened accounts of about 160 beggars in Lucknow under the relaxed Know Your Customer (KYC) norms of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “By opening their accounts, we want to include the lowest strata of social pyramid in the banking channel,” HCBL Cooperative Bank CEO Pawan Kapoor told Business Standard................
Tips to hasten FinClusion
My View on "Banks go on rural overdrive, but profitability a w...":
Profit and financial inclusion do not always go together. Banks cross-hold risks and transfer mechanism takes care of the entity's profit. What really holds up the functioning of rural branches is the placement of personnel and HR policies of banks that have not moved in tune with the requirements of rural branches. While working in rural branches, it is knowledge of banking and systems coupled with moving with the culture of the rural areas that would yield dividends. No branch from day one would not run on profit. There is always a cooling period. This could be five years in some centers and three years in some others. The other alternative is invest in technology upgradation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, invest in HR practices, adopt some of them and increase the reach. This would help in cleaning up the grassroots rural credit institutions and empower them with technology and higher human skills with cross-fertilization from the commercial banks. This would hasten the financial inclusion goals of PSBs and it is the least cost option in the long term.
- Yerram Raju
Local area banks want more leeway to mobilise deposits
..........In its Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India — 2012-13, the RBI said LABs show promise of small-scale banking institutions that can be experimented with on a larger scale in future. The Reserve Bank’s Discussion Paper ‘Banking Structure in India: The Way Forward’ has recommended the creation of more number of smaller banks in the private sector with the objective of achieving financial inclusion at the local level..........
RBI: Just good intent isn’t enough to treat customers fairly
......... RBI’s intent to extend TCF from banking products to third-party products is welcome. But RBI will need more than just good intent to solve this problem given the sophistication of banks to check boxes to meet regulatory requirements. RBI should move fast before the markets rebound to put in place more effective measures of customer protection than this statement of intent............
Banks alone not to blame
..............At the BANCON meet, central bankers perhaps stunned bank chiefs with stinging criticism of the rising proportion of troubled assets in state owned banks. With linguistic inventiveness, a Deputy Governor expressed his righteous indignation by preferring to talk not of the banks of the future, the theme of the conference, but of the “future of banks”. Other central bankers too joined in with less rhetorical concerns about rising NPAs, the trouble with debt recasting and poor appraisal systems......
Co-op bank customers asked to give account details
As part of all India drive to keep a check on black money, illegal transactions and money laundering, income tax (I-T) department has issued notices to around 1,100 cooperative banks and credit societies in the state. According to sources, I-T department has asked all the customers of the cooperative banks who have cash deposits over Rs 5 lakh to furnish the details of the amount. Also, if the customer has received Rs 10,000 or more in interest from the bank, ..........
Affordable housing: RBI nod for NHB’s $200-million overseas loan
National Housing Bank (NHB) has received Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval for raising $ 200 million external commercial borrowing (ECB) under the affordable housing window. The housing finance regulator will mobilise this amount before end March this fiscal, R.V. Verma, Chairman & Managing Director, NHB told Business Line here. NHB will again go back to RBI once the lender is finalised and the term sheet is ready, Verma added......
RBI to give self-regulatory status to microfinance industry associations
.....RBI’s decision, announced in a statement issued by the central bank, is based on recommendations of an expert panel chaired by Y.H. Malegam on regulating the microfinance sector. MFIs are firms that loan small amounts to low-income borrowers and source money from commercial banks to do business. India’s micro-credit sector has two major industry associations—microfinance institutions network (MFIN) and Sa-Dhan. Officials at both bodies said they will apply for SRO status...........
Late payment: RBI move not enough for SMEs
..........In its announcement, the RBI adds that it has been decided to include, incremental credit, including export credit, to be extended to medium enterprises by the scheduled commercial banks, as eligible priority sector lending. This is again a welcome move. The medium-scale enterprise sector has been suffering no less than their smaller counterparts when it comes to lack of credit availability and high interest rates. In addition,.............
Is India ready to enter global bond indices?
..........First let's look at the progress made on signposts suggested by the S S Tarapore Committee for capital account convertibility (CAC). As the table shows, none of the signposts are encouraging. Further, should debt be liberalised under the compulsions of balance of payments? Probably not, because FII investment in domestic debt may be rupee-denominated but it creates an indirect claim on foreign exchange reserves as well. The recent experience.....
Bad loans for self-help groups at alarming levels: Nabard
........“More painful is the fact that loans to SHGs in the most resource-poor regions in the country reported NPAs of over 10 per cent. Further, as indicated, this potent and effective financial inclusion measure has not received the attention with bankers currently focused on opening individual accounts through banking facilitators/banking correspondents,” .......
PFRDA needs more than a new chairman
.....Will things change now that the PFRDA chairman has been asked to go? Or will he merely be replaced by a retired bureaucrat after going through the motions of an elaborate selection process? The SEBI saga outlined in the next report only shows the urgent need for greater transparency and accountability in selecting independent regulators in India.
Paying for ATMs
This refers to A Seshan's letter "A danger at any time" (November 25). Banks can certainly afford the cost of providing adequate security at ATMs. If they have been complacent about this issue, it is probably because instances of robbery at ATMs have been few and far between................
'Cannot remove manpower from ATM safety'
.....The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) also tried to get the attention of the government and the bankers. “Unfortunately, posting security guards outside ATMs is not mandated by the Reserve Bank of India,” MD of SIS-Prosegur Rituraj Sinha told Express. SIS-Prosegur is a private security service. Sinha is also the chairperson of the Cash Logistics Association of India........
UP Police to deploy personnel at all currency chests in state
....At a meeting of Reserve Bank of India and other banks authorities with Uttar Pradesh Police, Special Task Force (STF), Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Crime Branch, it was decided to ensure better coordination between bank authorities and police, IG (Law and Order) RK Vishwakarma told reporters. "Accepting the demand of banks to provide security at the state's 465 currency chests, of which eight (one each in Mirzapur and Chandauli and six in Sonbhadra) lie in naxal-infested areas, we have decided to deploy two head constables and eight constables in each chest," he said. ..........
RBI tells banks to charge for SMS alerts on actual usage basis
......"Considering the technology available with banks and the telecom service providers, it should be possible for banks to charge customers based on actual usage of SMS alerts," RBI said in a notification to all banks. "With a view to ensuring reasonableness and equity in the charges levied by banks for sending SMS alerts to customers, banks are advised to leverage the technology available with them and the telecom service providers to ensure that such charges are levied on all customers.............
Read - ET....
RBI for Aadhaar authentication on card-based transactions
In order to ensure security in card-based payment transactions taking place at point of sale (POS) terminals or ATMs, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised banks that they may adopt Aadhaar as additional authentication or move to EMV (Euro pay MasterCard Visa) chip-and-pin technology. "In respect of cards, not specifically mandated by the RBI to adopt EMV norms, banks may take a decision whether they should adopt Aadhaar as additional factor of authentication or move to .........
Bitcoin is gaining currency in India and RBI is watching
Love it or hate it, but even a conservative bank like the RBI can’t ignore Bitcoin anymore. According to a report in The Economic Times today, there are about 50,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts in the country and 30,000 of them have downloaded digital wallets to store the currency. CoinMonk, which is creating awareness about the currency in India,..........
Read...................
Bangalore to host country's first global Bitcoin conference in December
........Investors and venture capitalists are expected to attend the event, which will also see participation from the Reserve Bank of India as well as State Bank of India, the largest public sector lender. In August, ET had reported that RBI was watching and learning about Bitcoins but had no intention of regulating it.................
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