Page 7 - Banking Finance October 2020

BANK UPDATE

to choose one foreign language. "Af- able the National Electronic Funds India (SBI), India's largest bank, from
ter all, if we want to compare our- Transfer (NEFT) system round the clock October 7. Rajnish Kumar, who led the
selves to an all-India service, language on all days and the system has been bank for the last three years, demitted
is one of the things on which focus has operating smoothly since then, it said. the office.
to be given," Sitharaman said, adding The RTGS system is primarily meant for
Khara, previously a Managing Director
that it is important for new recruits to large value transactions. The minimum
at SBI, was selected by the Banks
voluntarily decide on a regional lan- amount to be remitted through RTGS
Board Bureau (BBB) - the body en-
guage in which they would want to is Rs two lakh with no upper or maxi-
trusted with the task of the selection
specialize. mum ceiling. Currently, RTGS service
of the chiefs of public sector banks and
"If you choose Hindi, very well, but if window for customer transactions is insurance companies. The soft-spoken
it is some other language, he or she available to banks from 7 am to 6 pm Khara, who joined SBI as a probation-
should ideally be given an exposure in on a working day, for settlement at the ary officer in 1984, has over 35 years
the state where that language is spo- RBI end. However, the timings that of experience in banking.
ken," she said."Of course, in the long the banks follow may vary from bank Khara is taking over at a time when the
run, this will have a bearing on recruit- to bank, RBI said.
banking sector is facing many chal-
ments also," she said. lenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
India gets second set of
The minister said bankers recruited As the moratorium on loan repayments
from a particular state should, as far Swiss bank account details ended on August 31, SBI is now tack-
as possible, be deployed in that state. India has got the second set of Swiss ling the loan restructuring proposal.
In case there is a surplus from that bank account details of its nationals The new Chairman will also have to
state, recruits can be moved to any and entities under the automatic ex- tackle the menace of non-performing
other state. change of information pact with Swit- assets (NPAs) as the economy is in a
She added that banking services need zerland, marking a key milestone in contraction mode. SBI's gross NPAs
to be professional, robust and sensitive the government's fight against black were at 5.44 per cent of advances (Rs
to the customers that they serve. money allegedly stashed abroad. 1,29,661 crore) as of June 2020.
India is among the 86 countries with Khara led the SBI initiative to merge
RTGS to become 24X7 which Switzerland's Federal Tax Admin- five associate banks with SBI in 2017.
from December istration (FTA) has exchanged informa- As the MD, he oversaw the interna-
tion on financial accounts within the tional banking book, corporate banking
RBI has decided to make available the book & treasury operations of SBI.
RTGS (real-time gross settlement sys- framework of global standards on Additionally, he supervised the busi-
tem) - online fund transfer above Rs 2 AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Informa-
tion) this year. nesses of SBI's non-banking subsidiar-
lakh - round the clock on all days from ies, engaged in diverse financial activi-
December 2020. With this, India will India had received the first set of de- ties such as asset management, insur-
be among the few countries globally tails from Switzerland in September ance, custodial services, primary deal-
with a large value payment ecosystem. 2019 under the AEOI, which listed 75 ership, broking, credit cards, pension
countries.
"In order to facilitate swift and seam- funds and factoring services.
less payments in real-time for domes- The information exchange this year
tic businesses and institutions, it has involved nearly 3.1 million (31 lakh) fi- Small banks must have an
been decided to make available the nancial accounts, FTA said in a state-
RTGS system round the clock on all days ment, similar to the number of such ED in addition to MD and
from December 2020," the RBI said. accounts in 2019. CEO
"This will facilitate innovations in the According to banking experts RBI must
large value payments ecosystem and Dinesh Khara takes over as ensure that small to mid-sized private
promote ease of doing business," the SBI Chairman sector banks should have an Executive
RBI said.
Dinesh Kumar Khara has taken over as Director in addition to the Managing
In December 2019, the RBI made avail- the new Chairman of State Bank of Director and Chief Executive Officer so

BANKING FINANCE | OCTOBER | 2020 | 7