Page 8 - Banking Finance April 2016
P. 8
RBI CORNER
RESERVE BANK
RBI to rationalise MDR to RBI drafts to allow individuals to access fin in a single
encourage more POS ter-
minals window
Reserve Bank of India proposes to The Reserve Bank of India has un- financial sector regulators.
rationalise the merchant discount veiled a draft regulatory framework to
rate (MDR) to encourage setting up allow a new kind of non-banking finan- "Account Aggregators (AAs) would fill
of more point of sale terminals as use cial company (NBFC), which could act this gap by collecting and providing the
of plastic cards has gained traction as an account aggregator. information of customers' financial as-
for purchases of goods and services. sets in a consolidated, organised and
This will enable individuals to get a con- retrievable manner to the customer or
RBI to share FDI info with solidated view of their financial asset any other person as per the instruc-
IB, R&AW to control holdings, including bank deposits, mu- tions of the customer."
black money tual funds, insurance policies, and eq-
uity shares in a single online window. Aggregating information will not pose
The Reserve Bank of India will share any security risk because this will allow
foreign direct investment related in- The RBI said, "At present, persons customers to only view their holdings
formation with the Intelligence Bu- holding financial assets do not get a and not transact. Secondly, the
reau and the Research and Analysis consolidated view of their financial as- aggregators will not have access to the
Wing (R&AW) to check black money set holdings, especially when the enti- data and will not store any information
from entering the country. The deci- ties fall under the purview of different but will facilitate a consolidated view.
sion was taken during a recent meet-
ing of a government group, headed Ex-Deputy Governor says technical write-offs by banks
by revenue secretary to check eco- is a "scam"
nomic crimes.
Former Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Dr K C Chakrabarty says technical write-
The move comes after the cabinet offs by banks' is a "scam" and should be stopped.
secretariat, under whose administra-
tive control the R&AW functions, ex- "Technical write-offs by Indian banks are inequitable and
pressed concern over companies in should be stopped. It is a big scam. Small loans are rarely
tax havens investing in the country, written off, most of them are big loans," says London-based
people familiar with the matter said. Chakrabarty, who handled the supervision department of
the RBI from 2009 to 2014.
Public sector banks have written off Rs 1,14,000 crore in the last three years.
Banks are planning to write off more bad loans in the current year, and this
could be Rs 52,227 crore, similar to the quantum written off in 2014-15.
8 | 2016 | APRIL | BANKING FINANCE
