.....The promotion of financial inclusion involves much more than merely providing access to banks. It has many dimensions. These have been admirably explained in a recent lecture by the RBI’s Deepali Pant, on ‘ Financial Inclusion: Journey So Far and Road Ahead” ( November 2013). These include Financial Literacy and Financial Education, Robust Institutional Mechanism, and use of Technology. Banks have adopted a structured and planned approach to financial inclusion, through the preparation of Financial Inclusion Plans ( FIPs). The first plan, covering 2010- 2013, has shown remarkable progress. Banking outlets increased to 2,68,000 by March 2013. Of these, nearly 2,21,000 are Business Correspondents............
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.
Monday, December 23, 2013
‘Bankers should focus on human resources’
.....“The present day banker has to comprehend and cope with the growing customer base, changing profile and expectations, lest they (customers) move to some other bank. Redesigning branches and transforming the bank will not suffice. “The culture should also change with customer expectations,”...........
Race hots up
With Anand Sinha’s extended tenure as Deputy Governor set to end next month, the competition is hotting up for the post. While RBI Executive Directors G. Gopalakrishna, B. Mahapatra, G. Padmanabhan, R. Gandhi and P. Vijaya Bhaskar are the internal candidates in the race, it is understood that some bureaucrats are also vying for the position. Traditionally, out of the four deputy governors, two have been from the RBI while the other two are outsiders — with commercial banking and economics background. IAS officers who became Deputy Governor include D. R. Mehta and Y. V. Reddy.
Hindu
VITALINFO : Long pause or beginning of an end?
On
November 28, 2010, I came across the news “Ex - DG V.Leeladhar chosen for
National Banking Award” and thought to share it with others. This led to
conceptualising the VITALINFO blog (http://mangeshtarambale.blogspot.in/) with the very purpose to provide a platform for wider dissemination of
updated information related to and happening of events in and around RBI.
With only 4 info items uploaded on the first day, VITALINFO completed 3
years of its existence on 28th November 2013. I have been doing it single
handedly and the blog is published well before 7.30 a.m
daily.
During
this journey, it received all the appreciation from the Top Management, RBItes,
EX-RBItes, Re-Tyred colleagues, eminent persons like Dr. D.Subbarao, Dr. S.S.Tarapore, Smt Shyamala
Gopinath, Smt Usha Thorat, Dr. Subir Gokarn, Shri Anand Sinha, H.R.Khan, Shri
G.Padmanathan, Dr.Smt Deepali Pant Joshi, Shri P.B.Kulkarni, Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan, Dr.
A.Vasudevan, Shri A. Chandramouliswaran, V.S.Das, V.K.Sharma, A.N.Seshan,
M.G.Warrier, Yerram Raju, Kamala Rajan et al. The list has become endless. Now apart from
officers, even Class III staff members of the RBI have become regular reader of
the site. "Making the RBI a knowledge institution" was on top
of the agenda of the then Governor Dr. D.Subbarao during his tenure. My little
efforts towards that have now started reaping fruits. In an e-mail communication,
Dr. D.Subbarao commented on VITALINFO as under:-
Dear
Mangesh,
Many
thanks for your mail. I am deeply touched. Yes, I access VITALINFO much more
regularly than I did when I was in the RBI. It's one sure and simple way
of keeping in touch with the world of RBI; it feeds my curiosity and satisfies
my nostalgia. I remain impressed by your comprehensive and prompt coverage of
all the news that matters to RBI and am amazed by how you do this every day
without fail. Your motivation, enthusiasm and sense of service should be a role
model for all aspiring professionals. I do hope VITALINFO will continue to
maintain high standards of quality and integrity and become an increasingly
important platform for dissemination of news and views in the RBI fraterniy. My
best wishes for its continued success.
Best
regards,
Subba
I
am also quite inspired with the views of Dr.Raghuram Rajan as under:-
“The
Reserve Bank is a great institution with a tradition of integrity,
independence, and professionalism… key to all this is communication, and I want
to underscore communication…”
Down memory lane, I have become nostalgic today to look back as its time to pause for a little while. My son Harshal is getting married on 28th December 2013 and I will be too busy in my family commitments. As also I am under orders of transfer and will be relieved on 31st December to report to Mumbai. It may take time to settle down to return to mission VITALINFO. I am not quite sure, this time its a long pause or the beginning of an end........................................................
Finance to MSME is need of the hour: Rani Durve
Ujjain: To provide financial support to Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurship ( MSME) has become the need of the hour, said Reserve Bank of India Deputy General Manager Rani Durve here on Saturday. Durve was speaking at a workshop as chief guest organised under ZDH/ SEQUAL Partnership programme under the joint aegis of MP Small Scale Industries Organisations, Bhopal and Central India Chamber of Commerce & Industries, at Hotel Mittal Avenue........
Read - FPJ
Read - FPJ
Obituary
Shri.P.Jambukeswaran passed away on December 21st in Borivili, Mumbai. He was 75 years old. He was ailing for over six months. Jambu, as he was called, joined RBI in the Economic Department in 1960 and retired in 1982. He had a long spell in the Credit Planning Cell and was at the time of retirement in the National Housing Bank. He was a genial, gregarious person, hugely popular. He was an exemplary worker and an asset to his bosses.. He leaves behind his wife and son and a large circle of friends and admirers from the RBI family.
- P.P.Ramachandran
A course correction?
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to hold the policy rates in its mid-quarter policy review last Wednesday is being called “falling behind the inflation all over again” and a “falling out” of Governor Raghuram Rajan and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. It is being said that the RBI’s inflation fight is all set to “lose credibility”.........
Inflation may ease to 6.5 pc in December: Rangarajan
......Going forward, Mr. Rangarajan said, the declining trend in inflation will continue and WPI may ease to 6.5 per cent by March-end. Quoting an econometric study, the former RBI governor said, “The threshold inflation level is around six per cent, but there is a need to look slightly lower as the level is much higher than what many other countries in the world... advanced countries treat as the acceptable level of inflation.”.......
Yearender: Sting operations, bad loans hit all from SBI to Yes Bank
From the largest lender SBI to the youngest Yes Bank, the nation's banks were fined for violating regulatory norms after sting operations exposed chinks in their armour. The year 2013 saw the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nudge banks to not only improve customer services and reduce bad loans but also look at plugging loopholes in the regulatory system ahead of the entry of new banks.......
The markets hate a surprise
.......He quickly acted on his first promise and cut short-term interest rates. The markets rejoiced. In his second policy review though, he refrained from raising repo rates. The markets were thrilled, again, because they fully expected a rate hike. Rajan’s unfortunate predecessor D. Subbarao was an inflation hawk too. But he regularly received brickbats from bankers, investors and India Inc for not reducing interest rates to ‘stimulate’ growth. Rajan has raised interest rates twice already, while being heartily applauded. Conjuring up surprises for the market once in a while is good, but it is dangerous to overdo it......
RBI springs a surprise
..........The RBI’s inaction, in the context of the Governor’s consistently tough talk on inflation, somehow underlines the apex bank’s credibility. A rate hike has only been postponed not abandoned. Food prices may indeed come down temporarily but the long-term prognosis is not bright. The RBI has admitted that the policy decision has been a close one. There is merit in waiting for more data to reduce uncertainty. But there are obvious risks to that approach. The RBI may be perceived to be going soft on inflation. In a stunning coincidence, another risk materialised..........
Norms blunt Cos Act’s a-woman-a-board rule
.......Women spearheading the country's top investment banks are restricted from taking external board memberships because of internal policies on conflict of interest while those leading mighty commercial banks can't occupy board seats of other companies as the Reserve Bank of India rules prohibits executives from taking outside board directorships..........
RBI extends deadline for banks to shift to new messaging standards
......The objective of introducing ISO 20022 standard message format for payment system is to bring about standardisation in the messaging formats for various payment systems in the country and to conform to international standard, the apex bank said. Under RTGS, beneficiary branches receive funds in real time as soon as they are transferred by the remitting bank...........
Banks can’t upgrade a/c unilaterally
.....“The
consent of a customer is absolutely necessary before converting an
account into a premium account with higher balance requirement. If the
customer has not provided consent for the upgrade, the bank will have to
refund any charges imposed for not maintaining minimum balance,”.................
RBI's Clean Note Policy won't affect customers
......This was part of the central bank’s ‘Clean Note Policy’ under which all soiled and scribbled currency notes, once submitted to the RBI, are not reissued for circulation. The RBI destroys such notes by shredding or briquetting and issues fresh ones into the system through banks. “Nowhere have we said that banks should not accept notes on which something is written or scribbled,” a spokesperson of the RBI told dna. “The purpose was to discourage the practice of writing or scribbling on the body of notes in banks so as to achieve the objectives of the Clean Note Policy,” the official added...........
The Ben Bernanke punch bowl
.........The reaction of the policy authorities has also been very different. For example, the Reserve Bank of India went ahead with its monetary policy on 18 December despite the fact that an important US Fed meeting was due a few hours later. This is in sharp contrast to the events of September when the Indian central bank decided to postpone its policy announcement by a few days to see what the US Fed first did. Raghuram Rajan also gambled by not raising interest rates in December while he did so twice in the previous months to fight inflation as well as to protect the rupee..........
Can the RBI stem wilful defaults in banking?
.........The
RBI has proposed that the names of these auditors be made available to
ICAI, MCA and CAG, apart from the RBI and lenders. It’s not clear if
this will serve any useful purpose. The central bank also mentions
advocates, who wrongly certify assets and securities as having a clear
title, and valuers who may be overvaluing a security or an asset. It has
asked for their names to be reported to the IBA so that banks know
before using their services. There is no real protection for the banker
from unscrupulous support services which are used by wilful defaulters..........
'PIN'ned, customers now prefer cash purchases
In a surprise development, debit card holders in small towns seem to have returned to cash payments at retail outlets instead of swiping their cards as they are wary of punching the ATM pin number in full public glare. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it mandatory for cardholders to punch the Personal Identification Number (PIN) at retail outlets from December 1. Although the decision has been taken to provide additional layer of security to cardholders from cyber fraudsters, lack of awareness and apprehensions reportedly made cardholders wary of accepting the new rule............
India Post plans national ATM network
.....The plan is to issue ATM cards to all savings deposit holders at India Post. As on 31 March, the department was managing Rs.6.05 trillion of deposits, nearly half the deposit base of government-owned SBI, the country’s largest commercial bank, and double that of the largest private sector lender ICICI Bank. Of this, about Rs.2 trillion is under the savings scheme in 280 million accounts..........
Deploy guards, set up CCTV cameras before Jan 30: Cops to banks
...After a meeting with RBI officials, police and government officers earlier this month, the minister of state for home affairs Satej Patil had said that all banks have been asked to install properly functioning CCTVs covering the area inside and outside their ATM centres by January 30, 2014............
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