Please refer to the captioned RFP issued through MSTC e-commerce portal on May 17, 2021 (Event No. RBI/Central Office/DIT/21/20-21/ET/758) and notification published on the Bank’s website www.rbi.org.in on May 17, 2021 inviting application from eligible vendors for supply, installation, maintenance of Computer Hardware, Peripherals and Application Software Development at RBI 2021-23 through e-tender route.
2. In this regard, it is to inform that the Pre-Bid meeting has been re-scheduled on May 27, 2021 (Thursday) at 2.30 PM. The remaining schedule viz. Technical Bid Opening will be as it is. The corrigendum to this effect has also been uploaded on MSTC e-commerce web portal.
Chief General Manager Department of Information Technology
The CA Institute has suggested that appointment of statutory central auditors (SCAs) of public sector banks should be done by the Reserve Bank of India and not by the bank managements.
The audit regulator is keen that the banks’ auditors be appointed on the lines of Comptroller and Auditor General of India appointing public sector entities’ auditors.
“We have suggested that RBI itself should appoint the statutory auditors of public sector banks. The current system of bank managements appointing statutory auditors should be done away with,” Nihar Jambusaria, President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), told BusinessLine. This suggestion was conveyed to the central bank at a recent virtual interaction between the top brass of the CA Institute and senior RBI officials.
Also, the ICAI has made several suggestions on the RBI’s April 27 circular that prescribed norms for appointment of Statutory Central Auditors/Statutory Auditors in PSBs and statutory auditors for urban cooperative banks, non-banking finance companies and housing finance companies.
‘Minimum numbers’
Jambusaria said that CA Institute has suggested to the RBI that instead of prescribing the maximum number of SCAs in public sector banks, the RBI should set the the minimum numbers to be appointed. “We have suggested that instead of having a cap, there should be a minimum number and the current absence of minimum number is leading to reduction in overall number of auditors in PSBs,” he said.
Selection committee
It maybe recalled that bank managements have been appointing SCAs since 2008-09. However during 2011–14, the appointment was done by a Selection Committee comprising representatives of CAG, Ministry of Finance and IBA on a points-based system.
‘Not for deferring norms’
Asked to comment on corporate India’s recent suggestion to RBI that the entire new norms of the central bank be deferred by at least two years, Jambusaria said that ICAI is not in favour of such deferment. He also said that ICAI does not have any objections to making the concept of joint audits mandatory for banks and NBFCs with asset size of over ₹15,000 crore.
“Except for few changes which we have brought to the notice of RBI for consideration, we are happy with most of the norms in the central bank circular,” he said.
ICAI is also understood to have pitched for the reintroduction of compulsory three-year cooling off period after the completion of a SCAs tenure.
The Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held a meeting with the MD & CEOs of select Private Sector Banks on May 25, 2021 through video conference. The meeting was attended by Deputy Governors Shri M. K. Jain, Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao, Dr. Michael D. Patra and Shri T. Rabi Sankar.
In his opening remarks, the Governor recognised the crucial role played by the private sector banks as important stakeholders in the Indian banking sector. He impressed upon the banks to quickly and swiftly implement the measures announced by RBI on May 5, 2021 in right earnest. He also advised the banks to ensure continuity in provision of various financial services including credit facilities to individuals and businesses in the face of challenges brought on by the pandemic. He also urged them to continue focussing on efforts to further strengthen their balance sheets proactively.
Among other matters, the following issues were discussed in the meeting.
Assessment of current economic situation and the state of the banking sector;
Credit flows to different segments of the economy, particularly to small borrowers, MSMEs, etc.
Progress in the implementation of Covid Resolution Framework 1.0;
Monetary policy transmission and liquidity scenario; and
Implementation of various Covid-related policy measures taken by RBI.
SBI Cards and Payment Services (SBI Card) on Monday said it has framed a COVID-19 related stress resolution mechanism in accordance with the RBI’s recently announced relief measures. Pursuant to RBI’s circular dated May 5, 2021, the company has framed the resolution framework 2.0 for COVID-19 related stress of individuals and small businesses, based on the tenets as enumerated in the central bank guidelines, SBI Card said in a regulatory filing.
“The policy covers norms on offering relief to stressed cardholders by means of resolution plans and the related provisioning and asset classification norms,” it said.
Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank came out with the Resolution Framework 2.0 under which individuals and small businesses having exposure up to Rs 25 crore can opt for loan restructuring if they had not availed its earlier scheme.
The RBI on May 5 said it decided to extend such a facility for restructuring of existing loans without a downgrade in asset classification in view of the uncertainties created by the resurgence of the pandemic in India.
The pure-play credit card company, promoted by the country’s largest lender SBI, recorded a flat growth in its total income at Rs 9,714 crore for the fiscal ended March 2021.
Net profit fell by 21 per cent year-on-year at Rs 985 crore.
Private sector lender YES Bank on Tuesday announced the implementation of TransUnion’s onboarding solution, which will enable it to onboard its credit card customers seamlessly.
“The solution has been uniquely designed to enable a digital, streamlined onboarding process that delivers the experience consumers prefer such as fewer customer information fields to input, no physical paperwork, and comparatively lesser time required for completing the credit card application,” Yes Bank said in a statement.
An in-person interaction with customers for physical documentation and processing is now replaced with a digital process wherein a digital application link is sent to the customer, which the customer can complete along with a video KYC, it further said.
The solution also reduces the integration time and effort for the bank, while encompassing credit and risk decision workflow for digital end-to-end on-boarding.
A service fee is an amount charged to individuals for accessing different tasks, such as withdrawing cash at an ATM of another bank. A monthly maintenance fee is charged by the bank when you open a savings account with them. At the end of each month, this amount is deducted from the account. Similarly, service charges are often charged while accessing a different bank’s ATM or initiating a fund transfer. Now let’s take a glance at the charges that top banks charge for different services.
Charges for cash transactions
In most banks, a savings account holder is limited to conduct some free transactions, exceeding which a fee is imposed by the banks. If a customer exceeds the cap of four free transactions or cash withdrawals of up to Rs 2 lakh in a month, Axis Bank imposes charges on him or her. After May 1, Axis Bank customers who withdraw money from their savings account over the free cap must pay 2.5 per cent of the amount withdrawn. Saving bank customers in metro cities will be charged Rs 125 per transaction, whereas senior citizens, pensioners, and saving bank account customers in rural/semi-urban areas will be charged Rs 100 per transaction by Bank of Baroda after the limit of three transactions per month is surpassed. Account-holders of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) are excluded from these fees. Service charges for Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account holders have been revised by the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI). SBI stated on its website that the new fees would refer to ATM withdrawals, chequebook, transfer, and other non-financial transactions. The revised service charges will be enforced on July 1, 2021. The revised fee per cash withdrawal transaction at a Branch Channel/ATM is Rs 15 plus GST. Charges will be recovered after the first four free cash withdrawal transactions, according to the SBI website (including at ATM and branch). At all SBI and non-SBI ATMs, the service fee above the ceiling would be Rs 15 plus GST.
Cash withdrawal charges at ATM
Regular savings bank account holders at the State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank are allowed for eight free transactions in metro cities, including five from home-branch ATMs and three from non-home branch ATMs. Banks charge from Rs 20 to Rs 50 per withdrawal after the specified cap has been reached. At HDFC Bank, however, there is no service fee for cash withdrawals at home branches. However, non-home branches allow free cash withdrawals up to Rs.1,00,000/- per day, after which charges apply at Rs.2/1000, with a minimum of Rs.50/- per transaction; third-party cash withdrawals are limited to Rs.50,000/- per transaction. Cash withdrawals above the free cap are currently charged at Rs 5 per Rs 1,000 or Rs 150, whichever is higher. Cash withdrawals above the free limit will be charged by Axis Bank at a rate of Rs 10 per Rs 1,000 or Rs 150, whichever is higher, starting from May 1, 2021.
Charges for failed ATM transaction
Despite the fact that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that banks cannot charge customers for failed transactions, banks charge a fee for a failed ATM transaction due to insufficient balance in the customer’s account. For each unsuccessful transaction, SBI charges a fee of Rs 20 plus GST. For each failed transaction, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, and Yes Bank charges a fee of Rs 25.
Minimum balance
If a customer’s account balance slips below the specified amount, the bank imposes a fee. Customers in ICICI Bank’s metro and urban branches must maintain a minimum balance of Rs 10,000, whereas customers in semi-urban and rural branches must maintain a minimum balance of Rs 5,000. In Metro/Urban/Semi-Urban/Rural areas, if a customer fails to maintain the necessary minimum balance, the bank will charge a fee of Rs100 + 5% of the deficit in the specified minimum balance. The average monthly balance (AMB) requirement for HDFC Bank’s urban branch accounts is Rs 10,000, while the criteria for semi-urban branch accounts is Rs 5,000. The charges are Rs 600 a month if the AMB is less than Rs 2,500 in an urban branch account, and Rs 150 if the AMB is less than Rs 10,000 but more than Rs 7,500. On the other hand, a Monthly Service Fee (MSF) of Rs.10 per Rs.100 deficit in required balance or Rs.600, whichever is lower, with a minimum charge of Rs.150 is charged by Axis Bank.
SMS Charges
Customers are alerted by their banks of transactions that occur from their accounts. According to the Axis Bank website, the fee for certain value-added services (VAS) notifications is currently charged at Rs 5 per month (imposed quarterly at Rs 15 per quarter) on a subscription basis (s). This will be in effect until June 30, 2021. Starting July 1, 2021, a 25-paise-per-SMS SMS alert fee will be charged depending on actual usage/SMS sent to the individual, with a monthly limit of Rs 25. Charges are not applied on promotional SMS sent by the bank or OTP alerts. SBI had waived SMS service charges in August of last year. Customers who register for InstaAlert service with ‘SMS’ as the delivery platform will be charged Rs. 15 per quarter in the case of salary or savings accounts, and Rs. 25 per quarter in the case of current accounts at HDFC Bank. As of now, all ICICI Bank Savings Account customers will be charged Rs. 15 per quarter to use the Alerts facility via SMS.
Debit card charges in case of replacement
If you misplace the debit card, your bank will charge you a fee of Rs 50-500 to replace it. SBI, for example, currently charges Rs 300+GST for Debit Card Replacement. HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, on the other hand, charge a fee of Rs 200 for the same.
Documentation charges
Customers are charged by banks for the issuance of documents also. For duplicate physical passbooks and account statements, banks charge Rs 50-150. For example, SBI charges a fee of Rs 150 for signature verification. Banks issue one annual account statement per financial year to their customers. Customers who request a duplicate account statement, on the other hand, maybe charged between Rs 50 and Rs 100. Each duplicate statement costs Rs 100 at ICICI Bank. In particular, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank also charge Rs. 100 per statement.
Cheque clearance charges
For cheques worth more than Rs 1 lakh, the RBI has set a maximum fee of Rs 150 per cheque. Cheques with an amount of up to Rs 1 lakh are free of charge. For savings bank account holders, SBI will only provide 10 free cheque leaves every financial year. Additional 10-leaf cheque books will be issued at Rs 40 plus GST after that. The bank will charge you Rs 75 plus GST for 25 leaf cheque books. No such charges have been levied on senior citizens. Whereas for outstation cheque collection -through non-ICICI bank branch locations, ICICI Bank charges Rs. 200 per instrument for an amount of above Rs. 1 lakh.
IMPS Fund transfer charges
Although all Indian banks have made NEFT and RTGS transactions free for their customers, IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) transactions are still not free from charges which vary according to the amount and can range between Rs 1 to Rs 25. Currently, SBI has waived the charge for all IMPS transactions. Whereas, at HDFC Bank, transactions above Rs 1 lakh would incur a fee of Rs 15 plus GST. Axis Bank and ICICI Bank charge the same fee, but only for an amount ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
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Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, wanted in a ₹13,500-crore loan fraud in Punjab National Bank, has gone missing in Antigua and Barbuda where he had been staying since January 2018, the Royal Police Force of the Caribbean island nation said in a statement. The police force which has launched a missing person operation issued a statement along with the photograph of the businessman seeking information from public. “The Police are investigating a Missing Person Report made of 62-year-old Mehul Choksi of Jolly Harbour. Mehul was reported missing on Sunday 23rd May 2021 at the Johnson Point Police Station,” the statement said.
Choksi was last seen on Sunday in his car which was recovered by the police following searches but he could not be found, it said.
“Antiguanewsroom”, a local media outlet, quoted Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney on Tuesday that the police are “following up on the whereabouts of Indian businessman Mehul Choksi”, who is “rumoured” to be missing.
The media reports say Choksi, who had taken the citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, was seen driving in the southern area of the island on Sunday.
Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal confirmed the reports.
Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted for allegedly siphoning off ₹13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), using letters of undertaking.
While Modi is in a London prison after repeated denial of bail and is contesting extradition to India, Choksi had taken the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme, before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.
Freecharge has launched ‘Pay Later’ facility for its customers.
“The expenses get aggregated for a month and customers can pay at the end of the month, in a seamless manner,” it said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it can be used both on Freecharge’s platform as well as on a network of over 10,000 online and offline merchants.
Using Pay Later, customers can pay their electricity bills, recharge their mobiles, order food, medicines, grocery online without the need for any card.
“Unlike other digital payment options, Pay Later does not require remembering or saving card numbers, loading wallet or any OTP approvals. All the payments can be done through a secure one click process,” it further said.
On successful onboarding on Pay Later, customers receive a monthly credit limit of up to ₹5,000 and this usage limit gets enhanced in the future, depending on the customer’s profile.
“The facility enables our customers to pay for their small-ticket purchases both online and offline with mobile being the form factor, rather than cash or cards,” said Siddharth Mehta, CEO, Freecharge.
A processing fee and a small interest are levied for the usage. However, the interest will be credited back to the customer’s Freecharge wallet in the form of a ‘Cashback’ on the repayment of the Pay Later bill at the end of the month, the company said.
YES BANK announced the implementation of TransUnion’s onboarding solution. This solution will enable YES BANK to onboard its credit card customers seamlessly, efficiently, and quickly.
The solution enables a digital, streamlined onboarding process that provides customers with the experience they want, such as fewer customer information fields to fill out, no physical paperwork, and a shorter time to complete the credit card application. Processing is now replaced with a completely digital process wherein a digital application link is sent to the customer.
Rajanish Prabhu, Business Head – Credit Cards & Merchant Acquisition, YES BANK, said, “YES BANK remains steadfast in its endeavour to provide customers differentiated and convenient banking experience – the implementation of TransUnion’s seamless onboarding solution reaffirms our commitment. This is in line with our focus on delivering the convenience of digital experiences that technologically savvy customers demand.”
Shaleen Srivastava, Executive Vice President and Head of Fraud, Solutions and Alternate Data at TransUnion in India, said: “TransUnion’s seamless onboarding delivers a full range of identity, fraud, decisioning and credit solutions through a single platform and API calls to make integration easy and convenient for the lender. Its flexible orchestration and plug-and-play offering enables customization to meet evolving business needs and will provide a competitive edge to the credit card customer onboarding process at YES BANK.”
Welcome to the refurbished site of the Reserve Bank of India.
The two most important features of the site are: One, in addition to the default site, the refurbished site also has all the information bifurcated functionwise; two, a much improved search – well, at least we think so but you be the judge.
With this makeover, we also take a small step into social media. We will now use Twitter (albeit one way) to send out alerts on the announcements we make and YouTube to place in public domain our press conferences, interviews of our top management, events, such as, town halls and of course, some films aimed at consumer literacy.
The site can be accessed through most browsers and devices; it also meets accessibility standards.
Please save the url of the refurbished site in your favourites as we will give up the existing site shortly and register or re-register yourselves for receiving RSS feeds for uninterrupted alerts from the Reserve Bank.
Do feel free to give us your feedback by clicking on the feedback button on the right hand corner of the refurbished site.
