1. RBI, has decided that Indian companies will not be permitted to raise
External Commercial Borrowings from overseas branches or subsidiaries of Indian
banks for refinance or repayment of the Rupee loans raised from domestic
banking system.
2. Raghuram Rajan, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced
that plastic currency notes will be launched in 2015 after field trials.
3. RBI panel headed by ex‐Chairman of Axis Bank, P. J. Nayak recommend for diluting govt stake in public sector banks to below 50
%. The government should cut its holding in public sector banks to under 50
per cent, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel report on Tuesday said,
criticising the way in which the lenders are now being governed.
4. Reserve Bank of India granted banking licences to infrastructure financing
firm IDFC and microfinance institution Bandhan from among 25 applicants
that included corporate heavyweights ADAG Group, Aditya Birla Group and Bajaj
Group.
Note: The in‐principle approval granted (to the two
entities) will be valid for a period of 18 months during which the
applicants have to comply with the requirements under the guidelines and fulfil
the other conditions as may be stipulated by the RBI.
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh: CMD of Bandhan financial services Dr.
Rajiv B. Lall: Chairman of IDFC – Infrastructure Finance Company.
5. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the guidelines to allow the minors
of age above 10 years to independently open and operate savings bank accounts
and use other facilities like ATM and cheque books.
6. RBI extended the timeline for full implementation of Basel III norms
31 March 2019 instead of 31 March 2018.
7. RBI in consultation with Union Government on 1 April 2014 capped
the Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limits for the first half of the new
financial year 2014‐15 (April 2014‐Sep
2014) at 35000 crore rupees.
Note: The interest rate on WMA/overdraft
will be based on: a) WMA:
Repo Rate. b) Overdraft: Two percent above the Repo Rate
8. RBI extends date of exchanging pre‐2005 notes to
Jan 1, 2015
Note: The Reserve Bank has further clarified that the public
can continue to freely use these notes for any transaction. RBI has said that
people can unhesitatingly receive these notes in payment, as all such notes
continue to remain legal tender.
9. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked the trade related remittance
limit from 2 lakh rupees to 5 lakh rupees per transaction with immediate
effect. It also increased the number of transaction handled by exchange houses.
10. KC Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, has
quit three months ahead of completion of his term.
11. RBI pegged 2014‐15 GDP growth
at a central estimate of 5.5 percent.
12. Economic growth for 2014‐15 expected at
5.5 pc.
13. CAD expected to come down to 2 pc of GDP in 2014‐15.
14. Retail inflation expected to be under 6 pc in 2014.
15. RBI panel headed by RBI Deputy Governor Anand Sinha has
recommended bringing a benchmark floating interest rate, especially for home
loans. Panel also suggested Indian Banks Base Rate (IBBR).
16. The deadline for switching to new format bank cheques under
the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) ended on 30 April 2014.
17. RBI scraps 26% cap on interest rate for MFIs: (RBI)
removed 26 per cent cap on the interest rate that can be charged by a microfinance
company to its borrowers. MFI is allowed to charge interest rate equal to 2.75
times the average of the base rates of the top five commercial banks.
18. RBI permits 4 non‐bank entities to set up white label ATMs: The Reserve Bank has issued ‘certificate of
authorisation’ to four non‐bank entities:
(1) Tata Communications Payment Solutions
(2) Muthoot Finance,
(3) Prizm Payment Services and
(4) Vakrangee Ltd. , to set up White Label ATMs (WLAs) in
the country.
Note: Most of the ATMs belong to banks, but the cash dispensing
machines which are owned and operated by non‐banking companies
are called White Label ATMs.
19. RBI permits Srei to roll out white label ATMs: Srei
Infrastructure Finance is planning to start roll‐out
of its while label ATMs (WLAs) between July and September starting with a pilot
of 200 Tier‐III towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
20. The expert committee headed by Urjit R. Patel,
Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India examine the current monetary policy
framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested that the apex bank
should adopt the new CPI (consumer price index) as the measure of the nominal
anchor for policy communication. The nominal anchor or the target for inflation
should be set at 4 per cent with a band of +/‐
2 per cent around it.
21. Ex-Chairman of Axis Bank, P. J. Nayak is the head of the expert panel to review bank boards’ governance.
The panel will review the RBI's regulatory guidelines on ownership of banks and
representation in their boards, among other things.
22. The Reserve Bank of India has raised the Foreign
Institutional Investors, FIIs investment limit in the Power Grid Corporation to
30 per cent of its paid up capital, under the Portfolio Investment
Scheme.
23. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has doubled the sub‐limit
for foreign investment in government securities, to USD 10 billion by
long‐term investors. RBI's move is aimed to
attract more foreign funds. Investors like sovereign wealth funds (SWFs),
multilateral agencies, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks
are considered as long term investors.
24. RBI relaxes gold loan norms: The Reserve Bank of India has allowed
Non‐Banking Financial Companies, NBFCs to lend
up to 75 per cent of the value of gold. It was 60 per cent earlier.
25. RBI panel (headed by banker Nachiket Mor) has
suggested setting up of specialised banks to cater to low income households to ensure that all citizens have
bank accounts by 2016.
26. The RBI‐appointed committee on financial inclusion has recommended that the central bank
should set up specialized banks called Payments Bank to provide payment
services and deposit products to small businesses and low‐income
households.
The committee, headed by Nachiket Mor,
said that since the new
bank will be dealing with poor customers, such a bank must be allowed to accept
a maximum deposit of not more than Rs 50,000.
27. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had set up a panel under
executive director Deepak Mohanty to review the current system of data
collection, dissemination and data management processes in the central bank
and improve the existing mechanism.
28. RBI tightens norms for credit card holders:
RBI advised banks to
treat a credit card account as a non‐performing
asset if the customer fails to pay the minimum due amount within a stipulated
90‐day period.
