- What is Banking Regulation Act?
- RBI Power #1: Can remove entire Board of a Bank
- RBI Power #2: Connected Lending Prevention
- RBI Power #3: Unclaimed Accounts
- Public Banks Issue#1: Need consolidation
- Public Banks Issue#2: Need more investment
- Banks issue #3: More voting rights for investors
- Foreign Banks Issue #1: Stampduty
- Foreign Banks Issue #2: Want to invest in Commodity
- Standing Committee problem
- Issues raised in parliament
- Anti-Bill arguments
Boring technical details intentionally skipped. I donāt do Ph.D on current affairs, neither should you.
What is Banking Regulation Act?
This act empowers reserve bank of India (RBI ) to regulate all public sector banks (SBI, PNB etc.) and private sector banks.(ICICI, HDFC etc.) in India.
Set : Finance Ministerās Office
Finance minister and RBI governor are holding a meeting.
Chindu | Yaar many new players want to open banks in India. But they canāt, because youāre not giving new licenses, So what is your problem? |
RBI governor | Well, Iām given powers to regulate public and private sector banks, under Banking Regulation Act 1949.But those powers are not enough. So, Iām not going to give new bank-licenses to anybody, unless and until you get me more powers, by updating that Banking Regulation Act. |
Chindu | Ok, Iāll move a Banking laws (Amendment) bill, to amend the necessary things.But first tell me what new powers do you need? |
RBI Power #1: Can remove entire Board of a Bank
RBI | At present, if a Bank doesnāt play by my rules, I can remove its CEO or one or two directors. But that is not enough. What if the whole board of directors is involved in some mischief. So, I want powers to remove the entire board of directors. I also want you to increase the rates of existing monetary penalties that I can impose on a bank if it disobeys my rules, directives or gives me false information. |
Chindu | Ok agreed.Iāll get you the powers to supersede boards of the banks if any irregularities.And Iāll increase the penalty rates as well.Anything else? |
RBI | Second problem. Connected lending. |
Chindu | What is that? |
RBI Power #2: Connected Lending Prevention
- Suppose Mr.Paraajay gets license to open a new bank.
- He opens Pawn-Fisher bank, people deposit their hard earned cash in it.
- Ideally, bank should lend this money to the home, car, education and business-loan seekers, who then pay interest and thus bank makes profit.
- Bank must make good profit, so It can pay 1) good interest rate to its bank account holders. 2) good dividends to its share holders.
- But Mr.Paraajay also owns another company, Pawn-Fisher airlines.
- And this airlines company is making losses. Mr.Paraajay gives loans from Pawn-Fisher bank to Pawn-Fisher airlines @very low interest rate, to fix the mess.
- And or, this Pawn-Fisher airlines gets the bank loan @market rates from the Pawn-Fisher Bank but it doesnāt pay EMIs regularly, yet the bank doesnāt take any action.
- Similarly, Mr.Paraajay also opens Pawn-Fisher Mutual funds, but it also makes losses, and money is transferred from bank deposits to mutual funds, to cover up those losses.
- These type of activities = Not good, because in long term, bank will collapse and depositorsā money will be stuck.
RBI | So, I must be given powers to check the records and account-books of those mutual funds, insurance and other companies associated with a bank. |
Chindu | Agreed. youāll get the power to inspect those other business arms of a bank. Anything else? |
RBI | Yes, money from unclaimed bank accounts. |
RBI Power #3: Unclaimed Accounts
- If Mr.X has not used his bank account for more than 10 years, it is called āunclaimed bank account.ā
- There are crores of rupees in such unclaimed bank accounts, it increases the Administrative burden on bank employees (=need to maintain files etc)
- Plus there is also an opportunity to commit a fraud. for example some bank employee knows that Mr.Xās bank account is never checked, then heāll forge checkbooks signature or some other trick to withdraw money from Mr.Xās account.
RBI | so we must take some measure to tackle this issue.
|
Chindu | Agreed. Anything else |
RBI | Yes one tea, two samosas and four more powers
|
Chindu | All agreed. Anything else. |
RBI | Thatās enough for now. |
Chindu | Ok then please leave my cabin and send the SBI chairman in. He too had an appointment with me. |
Public Banks Issue#1: Need consolidation
SBI chief | Good morning Mr. Finance Minister. As youāre aware, SBI is the largest public sector bank in India, weāve more than 11,000 branches. Yet if you make a list of top 5 biggest banks of the world, our name doesnāt figure. |
Chindu | Why is it so? |
SBI | This is because too many small public banks exist in India. So, the āincoming-moneyā (from people to bank accounts) gets fragmented in so many bank branches. Finally, we donāt have enough cash, to expand in a big way. |
Chindu | Ok so what do you want from me? |
SBI |
|
Chindu | Agreed. |
PSU Banks Issue#2: Need more investment
SBI | Right now the Public Sector banks cannot issue shares worth more than Rs.3000 crores. I want you to relax this, because We need lot of investment. |
Chindu | Ok agreed. You can issue more shares, including bonus shares and rights issue etc. (already explained click me)But youāll have to take permission from Central Government + RBI if you want to do it. |
SBI | Agreed. |
Banks issue #3: More voting rights for investors
SBI | Before moving on, I must thank you for allowing us to issue bonus shares etc. But that alone will not bring investment in public or private sector banks. |
Chindu | Why? |
SBI |
|
Chindu | Agreed. Weāll revise the voting rights. |
Revised voting rights
Voting rights (%) | |||
Bank | Example | Before | After |
Private sector | HDFC, ICICI | 10 | 26 |
Public sector | SBI , PNB | 1 | 10 |
Chindu | Anything else. |
SBI | No this is all for now. |
Chindu | Then you may leave. But please send the chairman of Citibank in, he too had taken appointment and is waiting outside. |
Foreign Banks Issue #1: Stampduty
Chindu | Ok what can I do for you? |
Citibank | When I transfer my branches from the main company to the subsidiary company, I donāt want to pay stamp duty. This should help me expand my business in India. |
Chindu | Agreed. Anything else. |
Citibank | Yes there is one more matter |
Foreign Banks Issue #2: Want to invest in Commodity
Citibank |
|
Chindu | Agreed. |
Standing Committee problem
- After a bill is introduced in parliament, it goes to the Standing Committee of Parliament for particular subject.
- for example Banking Regulation bill to Standing Committee on finance.
- They inspect the bill clause by clause, put forward their recommendations. And then voting is done.
- In case of Banking regulation bill, after the parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance put its report, Chindu added some new provisions in it.
- so opposition parties got angry āthis wasnāt part of the original bill, if you want to add new provisions, then this bill must be sent back to the Standing Committee for re-considerationā.
Set: parliament
In the parliament, Opposition members are shouting slogans. (as usual)
Meera Kumar says ābeth jayiye, beth jayiye, kripyaa shaant ho jayiye.ā(please sit down, please sit down, as usual)
#2: Competition Monitoring: RBI vs CCI
Chindu | Friends, I also propose that only RBIās permission should be necessary for Bank mergers and acquisitions. Competition Commission of India should not play any role in it. |
Opposition | Not acceptable. Again this is new provision added after Standing Committee gave its report. So, send the bill back to Standing Committee. |
Chindu | No, no, no. if bill goes back to standing Committee, then itāll delay the implementation.Ok I back off, I remove this provision.CCI will have the power to investigate and clear mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector. |
Lok sabha passed the bill.
Rajya Sabha also passed the bill.
Now this bill file will goto President. Once he signs it, this bill will become a āLawā.
Anti-Bill arguments
In December, employees of public banks went on strike. (although SBIĀ employees did not join the strike.)
The Bank unions give following Anti-Bill arguments:
- Government claims āmore banks = more branches = more poor people get banking facilities = financial inclusionā. But it is mere lip service. Because new corporate banks/foreign banks wonāt have any interest in serving poor people.
- If mergers are allowed then rural branches will close down and/or rural banking operations will be outsourced via contractual business route.
- This type of ‘privatization’ will negatively affect our job security and interests of those poor people.
- Statistics indicate that only 50 percent of people in India have bank accounts.
- The Centre should focus on educating rural people and cultivating banking habit among them instead of taking steps to merge banks or diluting voting rights.
- Merger of banks will de-stablise public sector banks, then corporate firms will start their own banks and gobble up public savings. And that money will be misused for the benefit of few corporate honchos and not for the general public.
Although Chindu counters them saying āthese banking reforms= new banks will be opened= more employment. (he expects 6,000 new bank branches and recruitment of 84,000 people next year.)
Critiques also argue that
- It seems the whole exercise is not a comprehensive banking reform but just firefighting because Ā 1) Foreign banks and domestic players put pressure on FM to help them get bank licenses. 2) RBI blackmails FM to get more powers. 3) FM comes with banking regulation bill. Prime objective of this bill seems to help private players get new banking licenses.
- Government should further relax the voting rights otherwise, Government will keep abusing its majority shareholding to further its own political goals and election agendas.
- e.g. in 2008, public sector banks were asked to forgo farmersā loans (Debt Waiver scheme). Although Government promised to refund the loan-money to banks on behalf of farmers but it is not a good business practice.
Summary
The Banking regulation bill, 2011 was passed in the Winter session of parliament in Dec.2012.
The salient features of the Banking regulation bill are (list not exhaustive)
- RBI can inspect books of associate business arms of a bank.
- RBI can supercede entire board of directors of a bank.
- RBI can conduct special audits of cooperative banks.
- Cooperative societies cannot carryout banking activities without license from RBI.
- A āDepositor Education and Awareness Fund to receive money from deposit accounts not operated for more than 10 years.
- Increased the penalties and fines for violating Banking Regulation Act.
- Public Banks can obtain more capital via bonus shares and rights issue.
- Increases the voting rights of shareholders in Public and Private sector banks.
- Prior approval of RBI necessary if a person wants to purchase more than 5% shares of a bank.
- Banking Mergers and acquisition will fall under purview of CCI.
- Bank will have to pay penalty interest rate, if it doesnāt maintain CRR on daily basis.
- Foreign banks exempted from stampduty payment for certain cases.
Good work,Sir will u please explain 117th Amendment, about reservation in promotion.
Dear Himanshu I hope this might help you.
PROMOTION QUOTA BILL: A BRIEF IDEA OF ITS ORIGIN AND CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING IT
1. In 1992, the Supreme Court in the case of Indira Sawhney v. Union of India had held reservations in promotions to be unconstitutional but allowed its continuation for five years from the date of judgment as a special case. The 77th amendment to the Constitution was made in 1995 inserting clause (4A) to Article 16 before expiry of five year which enabled the Government to continue reservation for SCs and STs in promotion which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services.
2. The 81st amendment was made to the Constitution whereby clause (4/B) was incorporated in Article 16 of the Constitution which permits to treat the backlog reserved vacancies as a separate and distinct group, to which the limit of 50% reservation may not apply.
3. The 82nd amendment was made to the Constitution whereby a proviso was incorporated in Article 335 of the Constitution which enabled the State to give relaxations/concessions to the SC and ST candidates in the matter of promotion.
4. Clause (4A) of the Constitution was further modified through 85th amendment so as to give benefit of consequential seniority to SC/ST candidates promoted by reservation.
5. The validity of all these four Amendments were challenged before the Supreme Court through various writ petitions clubbed together in M. Nagaraj v. Union of India mainly on the ground that these altered the basic structure of the Constitution.
6. While upholding the validity of the amendments, the court held that the state is not bound to make reservation for SCs/STs in matter of promotion. However, if they wish to exercise their discretion, the state will have to satisfy the requirement of; (a) backwardness of the particular SC and ST group; (b) inadequate representation of the said group; and (c) efficiency of administration as mentioned in Article 335 of the Constitution.
7. At the centre of the controversy surrounding the Promotion Quota Bill is a judgment delivered by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court in U.P Power Corporation Ltd. v. Rajesh Kumar in April 2012.
8. The Supreme Court struck down the UP Government Seniority Rules which provided for reservations in promotions. The court, relying upon the judgment of M. Nagraj case, held that the state government had not undertaken any exercise to identify whether there was backwardness and inadequate representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state government services.
9. In order to render the ineffective the basis on which the judgment of M. Nagraj case was pronounced the central government has introduced the Constitution 117th Amendment Bill, 2012. The Bill seeks to substitute Article 16(4A) of the Constitution of India.
10. The Bill provides that all the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes notified in the Constitutional shall be deemed to be backward.
11. Article 335 of the Constitution states that the claims of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have to be balanced with maintaining efficiency in administration. The Bill states that provision of the amendment shall override the provision of Article 335.
12. The bill has been passed by the Rajya Sabha a few days back and has now been taken up for discussion and debate in Lok Sabha.
13. If passed, the Bill will empower the state governments to provide reservation in promotions for government employees belonging to SC/ST without showing any empirical evidence as to the (a) backwardness of the particular SC and ST group; (b) inadequate representation of the said group; and (c) efficiency of administration as mentioned in Article 335 of the Constitution so as to justify the reservation in promotions (Possibly a lethal political weapon in hands of likes of Mayawati, Kaunanidhi etc. to use this as a bait to serve their political interests).
For a critical analysis of this issue please refer to the following link
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/winning-the-case-for-promotion quotas/article3863068.ece
Dear mrunal i’ve another point of view regarding merger provision. How can the merger clause show adverse affect on rural banking? I mean we have many other provisions to guard rural banking.Schemes like swabhiman that allows mobile vehicle banking, new banking policy that makes 50% obligation in creating new branches in rural areasā¦.i think merger can not create any additional harm to the existing situation. And it is needed to create world class banks that can offer loans to larger projects at a single shot.(we know that it reduces the problems of lending from consortium of banks which creates some sort of headache to the loan seeking companies.) and it further strengthens the bankingsector both at national and international level as a result of consolidation.(because we, today,rarely can see the names of indianbanks in the top 25 banks in the world. In the fourth largest economy it is definitely a set backthat is to be answered. ) . And finally we have many types of banking options like primary credit societies, local banks, NBFC, RRBs, cooperative banks at various levels. Special banking facilities via NABARD, SIDBI. All these facilities continue further along with new initiatives(swabhiman, new banking policy) to strengthen rural banking. This environment can sufficiently counter the possible risk of merger. So the fruits of merger provision out weighs the risks, i think.
Please correct if iām wrong.
excellent sir.
Thank you.
THAT WAS AWESOME !!!
thank u so much sir..
Mrunal sir can you explain the meaning of “foreign banks will now be allowed to convert their indian operations into local subsidiaries or transfer shareholding to a separate holding company without paying stamp duty,”
Thnk u
It is BEST amongst ur economics articles
@Vijay ravi srikanth
merger may effect the rural banking
1)there will be an option of merging or acquisition of branches not generating good business hence private & public bank will pack their bags from rural banking as rural branches of a bank contributes a lot in the non performing assets of the bank
2)if public and private banks opt for merging then the vaccum created by them will pass on the SBI as it provides max loan in rural areas hence it will create new problem in rural banking
though its correct that there are many options for rural banking like RRB’s (the worst performer in rural banking) , coperative banks (not able to cover the whole segment of rural areas), NBFC (need not to mention everybody knows they are the bloodsuckers of rural people by charging a sky rising interest)
NABARD & SIDBI, have their own terms and conditions to loan .thus to my opinion merger and acquisition can create a problem in rural banking
Thank you salman….i’m aware of the situation. What all i want to say is today according to the guidelines issued by RBI if a bank has to open new branches then certain percentage(i could not present the exact figure) of them must be in rural areas. And the same is applicable even to foreign banks. According to the new banking policy a new private bank has to open 50% of its branches in rural areas. With new amendment RBPI can act with greater powers in case of violations. So they cant pack their luggage. And still we have priority sector lending policy. And if we closely observe the situation inclusive financing has got a good impetus today. Most of the financial things today are seeking a bank account. Take the case of direct cash transfer. It makes an account necessary to every BPL family. And i’m aware of their limitations at work. But i opine that the merger provision may not accelerate retrograde transformation “any further”. But i like your response as it reflects practical things well.
thank you sir for explaining the topic so lucidly.I have one question:
baking regulation bill,2012 passed by parliament is a money bill or ordinary bill?
nice only..
what is ‘ interest subvention scheme’ in detail.
Dear Ajit.
Hope this helps you in your preparation.
INTEREST SUBVENTION SCHEME
We can understand this scheme through an example:
Farmer āXā goes to SBI for a short term crop loan (A loan which is to be repaid within one year from the date of disbursement etc. of the loan by the bank to the borrower) of Rs. 300,000 or less. SBI fixes interest rate of 9% on the loan granted to āXā. But SBI, like any other bank, apprehends that the borrower will not be able to pay the interest amount on the loan in the specified time period and āXā at his end thinks that 9% interest rate is simply too much.
In order to assuage this apprehension of banks and borrowers, the Government of India in the year 2006-07 introduced the āINTEREST SUBVENTION SCHEMEā (interest subvention means a kind of subsidy provided by the government on the interest charged to farmers by the banks). Under this scheme the Government of India asked banks to charge 7% interest rate on the short term crop loans up to Rs. 300, 000 and the remaining burden of 2% interest was began to be borne by the government. It ensured that the banks get at least 2% interest amount (instead of nothing) against the loans advanced by them to the farmers.
Further, The Government of India has since 2009-10 been providing additional interest subvention to prompt payees farmers, i.e. those who repay their loan in time. The rate of additional interest subvention for the year 2012-13 is 3%. It means that the effective rate of interest a farmer will have to pay to the bank if he pays his loan timely is 4% (i.e. 7%-3%). This was done with an intention to incentivize time-bound repayment of loans by the famers.
In nutshell, the broad characteristics of this scheme are as follows:
1. This scheme was implemented for the first time in the Financial Year 2006-07.
2. It was introduced w.r.t short term crop loans worth up to Rs. 300, 000.
3. This subvention will be available to Public Sector Banks on the condition that they make available loan up to Rs. 3 lakh at 7% per annum.
4. This additional subvention will be available to Public Sector Banks on the condition that the effective rate of interest on the loan up to Rs. 3 lakh for such farmers will now be 4 % p.a.
5. This benefit would not accrue to those farmers who repay after one year of availing such loans.
6. This scheme can be availed only by Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative banks.
7. This amount of subvention will be calculated on the crop loan amount from the date of its disbursement/drawal up to the date of actual repayment of the crop loan by the farmer or up to the due date of the loan fixed by the banks for the repayment of the loan, whichever is earlier, subject to a maximum period of one year.
8. Since 2011-12, the benefits of interest subvention and additional subvention are also available to farmers who avail post harvest loans against warehouse receipts which are issued to them when they store their produce in the warehouses. This facility can be availed by farmers holding Kisan Credit Card for a further period of six months after the harvest of the crops by the farmer.
Dear Ajit
Also the interest subvention scheme explained above is in context of short term agriculutral crop only. The government of India also announced Interest subvention of one percent for home loans in the year 2009-10. Interest subvention schemes may have different characteristics depending upon the sector for which it is being implemented.
Regards
awesome article again….speechless …such a simple and lucid explanation i was baffled when i tried to puddle my way through newspapers….thanks a lot
Good work by comments Done by all , by sharing some information
hi good article
REALLY GOOD SIR !…YOU ROCK AGAIN !
Very Good …Sir please provide some articles related to Geography of India..thanks
GOOD ARTICLE SIR
God level explanation
sir
what exactly is stamp duty and why exactly would a foreign bank fret from paying up the stamp duty.
THANK YOU MRUNAL SIR,,,, SIMPLEST EXPLAINATIONS…..CONTINUE
wonderful explanation…:)
As has been recently promoted explicitly by Naina Lal Kidwai for the need of merger of banks in India, to stand on a better platform on international scale, we do need this, but again, thought drags us back to the same logic, is this really meant to do with the betterment for the common people, along with the people of rural areas(exhaustively seen to be affected out of mergers).
Mrunal sir, what I usually saw about government policies is that, people are left in the middle of the river with nothing to sail out boat, just to helplessly wait and watch the outcomes, and by the time it do result fruitless, government comes up some new policy.
too good sir…. i understood well..thank u sir.. :)
sir ye bonus shares n right issues??????? anyone
explained in this article: https://mrunalmanage.wpcomstaging.com/2012/04/economy-shares-vs-stocks-rights-issue.html
sir i cant download your recent articles from the printfriendly link u have given neither the copy paste of url to printfriendly website works for your article.
pls suggest me other ways to download it in pdf format because copying the page and paste it on word document makes it a mess and a cumbersome job also.
after your complaint, i tested the PDf link just now. It is working perfectly on my computer.
I suggest you change / upgrade browser to Google Chrome v23.
one tea, two samosas and four more powers………liked
superb article…thank u sir
Thanks you sir………for updating.plz explain govt Economic and Social Welfare schemes…
deconstructed all the jargon to make it simple and precise.. Awesome efforts
good, easily understood and no need to memorize, thank you for you for your innovative way of presentation.