Page 9 - BANKING FINANCE APRIL 2024

RBI CORNER

"A few days back we had a meeting without requisite gold collateral, regulated entities and rectify such de-
with the entire team of RBI officials anomalies regarding collection of fees ficiencies," Das said at the Annual Con-
who deal with this. There is a lot of and repayment in cash. ference of the RBI Ombudsman.
liberalisation which is coming in the RBI The DFS urged banks to undertake a The regulator had established an inter-
guidelines and we should be seeing the
thorough review of the last two-year nal ombudsman (IO) mechanism in
results in next two to three months
period from January 1, 2022 to Janu- regulated entities to bolster their in-
with regard to ecommerce (export)
ary 31, 2024 so as to ensure that all ternal grievance redressal processes.
policies," Sarangi said at the 1st Asia Das said the functioning of the IO re-
gold loans were disbursed in compli-
Pacific e-commerce policy summit quires "considerable improvement".
ance with regulatory requirements and
organised by economic think tank internal policies of banks.
ICRIER. "It has been observed that on many
occasions, IOs tend to merely endorse
Sarangi said that for business to busi- Govt allows RBI to import the decision of the regulated entities.
ness (B2B) shipments, the RBI has a In several instances, rejected com-
FEMA guideline under which payments gold without paying im- plaints are not being referred to IOs,"
have to be realised within a certain port levies Das said.
period of time (nine months). "But in
India has allowed its central bank to "The very foundation of an internal
commerce that time may get ex-
import gold without paying import lev- dispute resolution system depends on
panded," Sarangi said, indicating that ies, the government said in a notifica-
the commerce department is working tion issued. its ability to provide fair, impartial, and
with the RBI to liberalise the guideline judicious adjudication. The observed
for ecommerce exports. Gold importers from the world's sec- trend raises concerns about the robust-
ond biggest gold consumer need to pay ness of the existing framework. I urge
basic customs duty and Agriculture In- all of you to ensure the overall integ-
FinMin asks PSBs for re- frastructure and Development Cess rity and efficacy of the internal griev-
view of their gold loan (AIDC). ance redress mechanism," he said.

portfolio As of September 2023, the Reserve "There is also a need to further
The finance ministry has directed all Bank of India held 800.79 metric strengthen the internal grievance re-
tonnes of gold, including gold deposits dress systems, including the internal
state-owned banks to review their gold
of 39.89 tonnes. ombudsman framework, within the
loan portfolio as instances of non-com- regulated entities," Das said.
pliance with regulatory norms have Of that, 388.06 tonnes is held overseas
been noticed by the government. and 372.84 tonnes is held domestically,
according to the RBI's latest reserve RBI Governor: AI raises
The Department of Financial Services
(DFS) in a communication addressed to management report. cyber security risks
heads of public sector banks has asked RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that
them to look at their system and pro- Das for better grievance with the advent of AI, cyber security
cesses related to gold loan. challenges can rise manifold, and
redress mechanism
"We have asked banks to undertake RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das urged called upon financial institutions to
comprehensive review of the gold loan regulated entities to enhance their dedicate substantial efforts to protect
business," Financial Services Secretary customer information.
grievance redress mechanisms as "cer-
Vivek Joshi told PTI.
tain gaps" have been identified in the Regulated entities serve as reposito-
A directive in this regard was issued last systems and procedures of these enti- ries of data on financial transactions,
month advising them to fix anomalies ties. customer interactions, and operational
relating to collection of fees and inter- "We have brought these deficiencies activities, the governor said in his in-
est and closure of gold loan accounts. to the notice of individual banks and augural address at the Annual Confer-

The letter flagged various concerns, non-banking financial companies ence of RBI Ombudsman here.
including disbursement of gold loans (NBFCs). Our effort is to work with the Das noted that with the rise in fraudu-

8 | 2024 | APRIL | BANKING FINANCE