Friday, October 25, 2013

The Five Pillars of Raghuram Rajan

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has big plans to reform India’s financial sector during his term as the central bank chief. His strategy takes a cue from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who this summer unveiled a plan for boosting Japan’s growth based on three elements, which Mr. Abe calls arrows. “They have three arrows, I have five pillars,” Mr. Rajan said at an event of The Institute of International Finance in Washington D.C. earlier this month. “Five pillars of reform over the next few years,” he said...........

How the RBI can be made more accountable – Part 2

.........Ensuring that board members do not head or serve on other RBI committees (outside of the RBI Board) concurrently is a very important issue. The RBI board’s primary task, as noted earlier, is very clear – to monitor RBI’s performance and that of its executives including the Governor and act as the first stage of defence in the multi-layered accountability mechanism. That being the case, they cannot and should not serve on any committees other than board sub-committees..........

Anil Kumar Yadav cracks UGC-NET in record 4 subjects

......One of the notable features of June 2013 UGC-NET results is that Anil Kumar Yadav, an alumni of Sikkim Government College, Tadong and presently Deputy General Manager with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Gangtok Office, has cracked this tough national level test in record four subjects till date. Till now he has cleared the UGC-NET in Economics, Management, Commerce and Labour Welfare/ Personnel Management/Industrial Relations/ Labour and Social Welfare/Human Resource Management. It may also be mentioned that he has achieved the distinction of having Masters Degrees in 11 disciplines including Sociology, Management (MBA), Mass Communication, Psychology, Financial Management, Environment & Development, M.Com (BIM), Economics, Master of Mass Communication & Journalism (MCJ), M.Com (IBO) and International Relations...........



ICICI Bank organises Coin Exchange Mela at Chandigarh

..........The Coin Mela was inaugurated by Mr. Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy General Manager, Reserve Bank of India (Chandigarh). Mr. P.K.Lamba, Treasurer of Reserve Bank of India (Chandigarh) also graced the occasion. The Coin Mela is organised to offer a free facility of exchanging currency notes with coins to the general public. ...........

TOWN HALL MEET ON MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSME)

Srinagar, Oct 24: Reserve Bank of India organised its first Town Hall meet on MSME sector today on October 24, 2013 at Srinagar in Conference Hall of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd. K. K. Saraf, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Jammu and Kashmir, chaired the meeting. Besides A. K. Mattu, General Manager and Ramesh Chand, DGM-in-charge, RBI, Srinagar, Parvez Ahmed, Executive President, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Convener, SLBC, representative from SIDBI, senior Bankers from major banks viz: Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank and representatives from Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) and Federation of Chambers of Industries, Kashmir (FCIK) and some entrepreneurs from Kashmir, participated in the meeting. ......

GNLU to train RBI law officers

AHMEDABAD: In a first of its kind training to be held at GNLU, a two-day intensive workshop for 45 law officers of Reserve Bank of India will be organized to impart advanced knowledge of specific laws, legal procedures and policies. The training will focus on Companies Act-2013,.............

RBI chastises bank officials

RBI Regional Director Uma Shankar on Wednesday chastised bank officials for poor attendance at district-level bankers’ committee meetings in the State. Speaking at the State-level Bankers’ Committee meeting here, she said:.........

RBI team to visit Ambur on October 30th

A team of senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India would be visiting Ambur on October 30, to interact with entrepreneurs and obtain feedback on problems if any, in availing loans from nationalised banks. This was informed by M V Swamynatthan, district president of the Vellore District Micro and Small Entrepreneurs Association (VDMSEA)...........

Create National Cooperative Bank - Yerram Raju



The author is right in arguing for a robust cooperative banking structure at the grassroots to achieve financial inclusion. But NABARD whose former chairman's views the author quoted has been responsible in a large measure for the current status of the structure - for, it's supervision during the last thirty years has brought down its contribution to farm credit from 62% in 1982 to 12% in 2012 and it failed even to transform the single entry bookkeeping to state of art accountancy consistent with the rest of the financial entities. It has transformed even the RRB structure in a manner that reduced their numbers and spread due to its inability to supervise. The RBI would do well to take back the supervision function and regulatory function from NABARD and create an umbrella institution like the National Cooperative Bank to deal with both the rural and urban cooperative banks or in the alternate create a subsidiary of NABARD as a dedicated arm to deal with the Cooperative banking with specific mandates for performance and regular review. 

- Yerram Raju

Reforms cannot wait



As public sector banks including State Bank of India and its associates, old private sector banks, new private sector banks, RRBs and cooperative banks have different approaches to resource mobilization, lending and profitability, varying capabilities in terms of outreach and expertise and different mandates from the stake-holders, each category of these institutions will have to be given resource mobilization and credit delivery tasks factoring in these structural and policy aspects. 
The reorganization of the banking system may be further delayed for political reasons. As essential reforms cannot wait for a change in the political weather, in the medium term, GOI and RBI may consider the following steps: 
• Redefine sub-sectors in the priority sector reckoning the changes that have taken place during the last two decades and realign the targets for sub-sectors. Beyond inclusion of a few additional activities as eligible for classification under priority sector or raising certain ceilings to factor in inflation impact, nothing much has happened in the recent past from this perspective. 
• Ask banks to ensure that their rural, semi-urban, urban and metro branches realign their credit portfolios to meet local credit needs 
• Instead of prescribing straight-jacket targets for lending to sub-sectors like agriculture, make necessary policy changes which will reflect the availability of expertise and outreach of each category of banks. E.g. If a bank has more branches in urban areas and cities and are able to lend more to microfinance, allow a set-off their disbursal to microfinance over and above a bench-mark against their target for lending to agriculture. 
• Route all concessions and subsidies in interest rates through the banking channel and make the lending banker responsible to ensure that the ultimate borrower is charged a minimum interest of, say the rates paid on savings bank deposits by the bank. 
(Excerpted from my article “Surmounting the Unsurmountable” published in The Global ANALYST, December 2013 which can be accessed from theglobalanalyst.co ) 

- M G Warrier, Mumbai 

Financial sector regulators to finalize action plan for FSLRC

......“As regards to legislative recommendations, it was decided to analyse the public comments and feedback to further fine-tune the draft Indian financial code. It was also decided that action should be taken for finalizing the road map for creation of new institutions such as Resolution Corporation, Public Debt Management Agency, Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal and Financial Data Management Centre,” the finance ministry said in a statement.........

RBI guv Raghuram Rajan meets FM ahead of second quarter policy review

Ahead of second quarter monetary policy review, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and discussed macroeconomic situation. "I discussed whole set of issues with the Finance Minister including state of economy," Rajan told reporters after the meeting here.........

FSDC meet: India to reach out to sovereign wealth funds

.....The FSDC meeting was attended by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Sebi Chairman UK Sinha, PFRDA Chairman Yogesh Agarwal, Irda Chairman TS Vijayan and all Secretaries of the finance ministry. FMC Chairman Ramesh Abhishek was also present since the commodities’ regulator has now come under the ambit of the finance ministry. Just before the FSDC meeting, all its members, including the finance minister, gave a farewell to former RBI Governor D Subbarao at Delhi’s Gymkhana Club. The FSDC also discussed the possibility of implementation of recommendations of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC). It was decided that all regulators would finalise an action plan for implementation of all FSLRC principles relating to regulatory governance, transparency and improved operational efficiency that do not require legislative action........

A global conference on Financial Inclusion & Payment Systems

Financial Inclusion and Payment Systems Conference will be a landmark event, scheduled to take place on 24-25 October, 2013. With a broader approach and explicitly defined sessions and the top participants, the Global FIPS Conference will be a unique opportunity to engage with a broad range of players in financial inclusion and payment systems space. The Conference will witness a collaborative environment among the top stakeholders, where the relevant issues will be addressed, and the road map to achieve 100 % Financial Inclusion will be put. FIPS 2013 will take into account the very essence of inclusive growth, thereby highlighting on the achievements, shortcomings and challenges on our way to overcome..............

RBI to permit urban banks to open specialised branches

......These branches should be fully computerized. UCBs need to be Core Banking Solution (CBS) compliant. These branches should be opened within the Area of Operation of the UCB. They should be opened on a cluster approach, where certain number of branches are linked to a specialized branch.  The branch should be opened at the place for which authorization has been issued by RBI. The conversion from specialized branch to a normal branch and vice-versa should be carried out only with the prior approval of RBI...........

‘Banking sector will comeout of problems shortly’


...........The banking industry will be able to overcome the problems of bad loans and credit squeeze and regain its past glory in a short time, Rakesh Bhatia, Managing Director, Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd, has said. He was speaking at a two-day national seminar on ‘Contours of Indian Banking’ organised by the College of Cooperation Banking and Management, Kerala Agriculture University at Thrissur............



Bank on India Post

..........The most important factor for a depositor is trust, which post offices already enjoy, making them a safe investment destination. The only additional thing they need to do is perform the credit function. This can be undertaken by utilising the services of the credit staff of PSU bankers from nearby areas, or by hiring retired bankers for the first five years; by then they can train their own people. As the postman is people-friendly, especially in rural areas, KYC compliance will be not be an issue and chances of fraud and misappropriation will be minimal...........

Banking woes! ombudsman coming incognito

Bankers beware! Representatives from the office of the Banking Ombudsman may soon ‘catch you red-handed’ delivering shoddy service to a hapless customer and initiate penal action. “Incognito visits are expected to address issues of deficient service,” said S. Chattopadhyay, Banking Ombudsman, Reserve Bank of India............

When customer care fails

........In the case of a bank, take your complaint to the banking ombudsman, the point person appointed by the RBI to redress customer complaints regarding deficiency in banking services. The ombudsman caters to specific geographic locations, so approach the one under which your billing address falls. Besides sending a physical complaint via post, you can email the ombudsman directly or fill up the complaint form on the RBI’s Web site. There is no fee for filing a complaint.........

RBI asks RRBs to ensure service providers adhere to regulatory needs

........The central bank also said that RBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) should have access to all information resources that are consumed by RRBs, though the resources are not physically located in the premises of banks.............