Tag: RBi policy

RBI to introduce internal ombudsman scheme for NBFCs on lines of banks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced an internal ombudsman scheme (IOS) to redress grievances at select non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The IOS will be on the lines of a similar system adopted at banks and will redress grievances related to deficiencies in service, Governor Shaktikanta Das said, announcing the new measure in the statement on regulatory policies along with the bi-monthly review of the monetary policy.

The increased significance, strength and reach of NBFCs across the country have necessitated having in place better customer experience including grievance redress practices, he said.

Das said over the last few years, the RBI has taken a slew of measures to improve consumer protection at NBFCs which include asking such lenders to appoint nodal officers to address grievances in 2013 and launch of the ombudsman scheme for NBFCs in 2018.

The IOS system will be in lines of IOS for banks and non-bank payment systems participants. Select NBFCs in the above category will have to appoint an Internal Ombudsman (IO) at the top of their internal grievance redress mechanism to examine customer complaints which are in the nature of deficiency in service and partly or wholly rejected by the NBFCs, the central bank said.

RBI previously required NBFCs to appoint Nodal Officers for grievance redress (2013) and introduced the Ombudsman Scheme for NBFCs (2018).

RBI will soon issue detailed instructions.

Meanwhile, Das also announced a six-month extension in the facility which allows banks to on-lend through NBFCs and get the priority sector lending tag, till March 2022. He reminded that bank lending to registered NBFCs (other than micro-lenders) for on-lending to agriculture (investment credit), Micro and Small enterprises and housing (with an increased limit) was permitted to be classified as priority sector lending up to certain limits in August 2019.

–With PTI inputs

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI keeps repo rate unchanged; Should home buyers cheer?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

It’s a moment to cheer for homebuyers as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate unchanged at 4 percent in October’s bi-monthly monetary policy announced on Friday. The status quo on the interest rate front means that the low home loan interest rates regime will continue in the market and help foster housing demand during the ongoing festive season, experts said.

Notably, this is a period when housing sales usually surge on the back of attractive offers by developers and lending banks in wake of the festival season.

According to Anuj Puri, Chairman — ANAROCK Group, the green shoots of economic revival coupled with the prevailing low-interest rates will be conducive for the residential sector in the short to mid-term.

“ANAROCK research indicates that we may see at least 10-15 percent growth in housing demand in the ongoing festive period (October-December) across the top 7 cities against the preceding quarter. If ANAROCK’s predictions are accurate, the ongoing festive quarter will see at least a 35-40 percent yearly rise in overall housing sales across the top 7 cities as against the same period in 2020,” Puri said.

Adding to this, Ram Raheja, Director, S Raheja Realty Pvt Ltd said that an unchanged repo rate will further allow demand creation including for high involvement products like real estate.

“RBI’s resolve to keep low interest is key to the recovery of the real estate industry and the overall economy. The real estate sector is expected to continue benefiting from the pass-through of low benchmark lending rates to end consumers, especially in the residential segment. The demand for homes is likely to continue to gain momentum going forward,” he said.

Welcoming the move, Divaker Bhalla, Founder at iProp.Money said that the stable rates will bring in the much-needed activity in the sector during the ongoing festival season.

Further, Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director at Knight Frank India believes that RBI’s accommodative stance will allow banks to continue providing home loans at the current levels.

“Over the last few quarters, there has been a fundamental change in buyers’ expectations and attitude towards home ownership, which has resulted in the residential real estate sector perform exceedingly well across all segments. Many factors, especially demand stimulants like stamp duty cut and lower circle rates along with the lowest ever home loan rates, have helped in converting latent demand to sales. At this juncture, we are favorably poised with an encouraging ramp up on vaccination rate across the country, ongoing festive season, and opening up of the country, the time is right to ensure an orbital shift for the industry,” Baijal pointed out.

Home loan interest rates have already gone down substantially in the recent past, and are presently at an all-time low and property prices have been stable.

Hence, according to Ramani Sastri – Chairman and MD at Sterling Developers Pvt. Ltd, this is the right time for prospective home buyers to invest.

“Homebuyers will continue to take advantage of the lowest ever home loan interest rates. The move to reduce interest rates by few banks recently is encouraging and will pave a path for robust housing demand further. We are seeing a lot of first-time home buyers, who were not able to reach a decision in the previous quarters due to the lockdown are eager to conclude the deal now,” Sastri added.

Yash Gupta, Equity Research Analyst at Angel One Ltd further believes that this policy will help banks to keep home loan interest rates at the current rate or even some dip in it in the coming months.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI announces fourth sandbox cohort on ‘prevention and mitigation of financial frauds’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday announced the fourth cohort under the regulatory sandbox framework for ‘Prevention and Mitigation of Financial Frauds’.

“With a view to provide further impetus to the fintech eco-system, a fourth cohort on ‘Prevention and Mitigation of financial frauds’ is being announced,” Das said.

The experiments under the announced sandbox will be on using technology to reduce the lag between the occurrence and detection of frauds, strengthen the fraud governance and structure and minimising the response time to frauds, Das said.

He added that the application window for this cohort would be opened in due course.

The RBI has so far introduced three cohorts on Retail Payments, Cross Border Payments and MSME Lending.

According to Das, this measure is expected to ensure continuous innovation and engagement with industry to enable a proactive response to the rapidly evolving FinTech scenario.

He further said that ensuring wider availability of payments acceptance (PA) infrastructure throughout the country has been one of the priority areas for financial inclusion.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India expectedly kept interest rates unchanged at a record low on Friday but signalled the start of tapering pandemicera stimulus measures on economic recovery taking roots.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the key lending rate or the repo rate unchanged at 4 percent while the reverse repo rate or the borrowing rate was maintained at 3.35 per cent. It voted 51 to retain the accommodative stance, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in an online broadcast.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI policy: MPC proposes framework for leveraging geo-tagging tech on payment infra

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposes to introduce a framework for leveraging geo-tagging technology on all new and existing payment infrastructure, said RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das while announcing the monetary policy outcome on Friday.

“Ensuring wider availability of payments acceptance (PA) infrastructure throughout the country has been one of the priority areas for financial inclusion,” Das said in his statement.

“To target areas with deficient PA infrastructure, it is proposed to introduce a framework for leveraging geo-tagging technology for capturing exact location information on all existing and new PA infrastructure viz., Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, Quick Response (QR) Codes, etc. This would complement the Payment Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) framework of the Reserve Bank in ensuring wider geographical deployment of PA infrastructure,” Das added.

The central bank also proposes to increase the per-transaction IMPS limit to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh currently, Das added.

Also Read | RBI Monetary Policy: FY22 GDP growth projection retained at 9.5%; Q2, Q3 forecasts raised

The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the repo rate unchanged in the fourth bi-monthly policy meet for the financial year 2021-22. With no change this time as well, the repo rate currently stands at 4 percent. The reverse repo rate has been maintained at 3.35 percent.

The MPC voted unanimously to keep policy rates unchanged while it voted 5:1 to maintain an ‘accommodative’ stance.

Catch RBI-policy related updates here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI extends special 3-year LTRO of Rs 10,000 cr for SFBs till December 31

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The special 3-year long-term repo operation (LTRO) of Rs 10,000 crore for small finance banks (SFBs) has been extended till December 31 and made available on-tap, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday.

A three-year SLTRO facility of Rs 10,000 crore at the repo rate was made available to SFBs in May 2021 to be deployed for fresh lending of up to Rs 10 lakh per borrower.

This facility was made available till October 31, 2021. Recognising the persisting uneven impact of the pandemic on small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities, it has been decided to extend this facility till December 31, 2021, RBI said on Friday.

This facility will now be available on tap to ensure extended support to these entities, RBI said.

” We have proposed to introduce a framework for retail digital payments in offline mode,” Das said.

It has also been proposed to raise the transaction limit on IMPS transactions to Rs 5 lakh from the current cap of Rs 2 lakh.

Meanwhile, the central bank decided to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent but maintained an accommodative stance even as the economy is showing signs of recovery after the second COVID wave. This is the eighth time in a row that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Das has maintained the status quo.

RBI had last revised its policy repo rate or the short-term lending rate on May 22, 2020, in an off-policy cycle to perk up demand by cutting interest rate to a historic low. MPC decided to keep the benchmark repurchase (repo) rate at 4 percent, Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy review.

Catch all RBI policy-related updates here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI Monetary Policy: FY22 GDP growth forecast retained at 9.5%; Q2, Q3 projections raised

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday retained its growth forecast for the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) at 9.5 percent for the current financial year. The central bank, however, revised its projections for the July-September and October-December quarters upwards.

The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee maintained a status quo on key interest rates and retained its “accommodative” stance.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said growth in Q2 is now seen at 7.9 percent, as against 7.3 percent earlier, and the projection for Q3 raised to 6.8 percent from 6.3 percent. The central bank, however, retained the projection for the quarter ending March 2022 at 6.1 percent.

ALSO READ: RBI projects inflation at 5.3% in FY22

For the first quarter of the next financial year, which begins on April 1, 2022, the RBI retained the growth projection at 17.2 percent.

The RBI sees global chip shortages, elevated commodity rates and input costs, potential global market volatility and uncertainty around the COVID trajectory as key risks to growth prospects.

Governor Das said a recovery in aggregate demand gathered pace in August and September, as reflected in high-frequency indicators including railway freight traffic, port cargo, cement, electricity, E-way bills and GST collections.

Ebbing of COVID infections, easing of pandemic-related restrictions and a pickup in the pace of vaccinations facilitated the rebound, according to the RBI.

ALSO READ: RBI extends three-year Rs 10,000-crore LTRO for SFBs till December 31

Festival boost eyed

“Pent-up demand and the festival season should give further fillip to urban demand in the second half of the financial year,” Das said. The RBI expects rural demand to get impetus from continued resilience of the Agri sector and record Kharif output this financial year, he said in his address to the media.

The RBI maintained the status quo on key interest rates as well as policy stance, with its six-member Monetary Policy Committee deciding to remain “accommodative”. (Read the full text of Shaktikanta Das’s speech)

Most economists said the RBI policy announcements were on expected lines.

ALSO READ: RBI to discontinue GSAP, but stands ready with instruments like operation twist

“We do not see the RBI in a hurry to normalise liquidity conditions as well as the reverse repo rate in the near term. We continue to see February policy as the earliest period of review for the RBI to narrow the policy rate corridor by raising the reverse repo rate,” said Suvodeep Rakshit, Senior Economist at Kotak Institutional Equities.

Catch LIVE Updates on RBI monetary policy here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI to discontinue GSAP, but stands ready with instruments like operation twist

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said that the need for undertaking further G-sec Acquisition Programme (GSAP) operations does not arise. The central bank, however, said it stands ready with instruments like operation twist.

Operation twist is a monetary policy strategy used by central banks aimed at stimulating economic growth through lowering long-term interest rates.

While unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy review, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the liquidity overhang and absence of fresh government borrowing suggest that bond purchases are not required at the moment.

Das said GSAP has been successful and anchoring yield expectations, coupled with other liquidity measures.

RBI further proposed to take 14-day VRRR options in a fortnightly manner.

“Depending on evolving liquidity conditions, the pace of government expenditure, RBI may consider complementing 14-day VRRR actions with 28-day VRRR auctions. VRRR should not be interpreted as a reversal of accommodative policy stance,” Shaktikanta Das said.

“V in VRRR will also represent voluntary. There is no compulsion for banks to put money in this window. We don’t want surprises, policy approach will be calibrated and more of gradualism,” Das said.

The central bank governor also announced a calendar for fortnightly VRRRs.

Meanwhile, the central bank decided to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent but maintained an accommodative stance even as the economy is showing signs of recovery after the second COVID wave. This is the eighth time in a row that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Das has maintained the status quo.

RBI had last revised its policy repo rate or the short-term lending rate on May 22, 2020, in an off-policy cycle to perk up demand by cutting interest rate to a historic low. MPC decided to keep the benchmark repurchase (repo) rate at 4 percent, Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy review.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate will also continue to earn 3.35 percent for banks for their deposits kept with RBI. Das said MPC voted unanimously for keeping the interest rate unchanged and decided to continue with its accommodative stance as long as necessary to support growth and keep inflation within the target.

Catch all RBI policy-related updates here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Marketbuzz Podcast With Reema Tendulkar: Sensex, Nifty50 likely to open higher ahead of RBI policy statement

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 are likely to make a positive start on Friday tracking gains in global markets. Nifty futures trading on Singapore Exchange — an early indicator of NSE’s Nifty50 benchmark index in India — were last seen trading 37.5 points or 0.2 percent higher at 17,853 ahead of the opening of the Indian market. All eyes will be on the outcome of the RBI’s scheduled monetary policy review.

About MarketBuzz:The CNBCTV18.com podcast on the big themes, vital news and key events that you should know before the opening bell, powered by CNBC-TV18 anchors. MarketBuzz is your daily morning briefing by CNBC-TV18 research analysts and anchors Sonia Shenoy, Ekta Batra, Anisha Jain, Nigel D’Souza and Mangalam Maloo to jumpstart your stock market investing. Subscribe to our free podcasts on Audioboom or listen on the featured podcast page on CNBCTV18.com.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI policy highlights: Enough liquidity will be made available to support growth, financial markets, says Guv Shaktikanta Das

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

RBI Monetary Policy LIVE Updates: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged in the fourth bi-monthly policy meet for the financial year 2021-22, governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday. The MPC voted unanimously to keep policy rates unchanged while it voted 5:1 to maintain an ‘accommodative’ stance .
With no change this time as well, the repo rate currently stands at 4 percent. The reverse repo rate has been maintained at 3.35 percent.

Catch all RBI policy-related updates here:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Stock Market Highlights: Nifty50 hits record closing high of 17,895, Sensex jumps 381 points after RBI announcements

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Stock Market Highlights: Dalal Street extended gains to a second straight day with the Nifty50 index hitting a record closing high after the RBI kept the key rates unchanged and remained ‘accommodative’ following a scheduled review. The market cheered the announcements with the easing of concerns about an earlier-than-expected tightening of monetary policy. Gains in IT, oil & gas and PSU banking shares lifted the market. Broader markets also rose, with the smallcap index outperforming the headline gauges by rising 1.2 percent. TCS shares ended one percent higher and remained in focus during the session, ahead of the Q2 earnings announcement by the IT major.

Here are highlights of the Oct 8 session:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow