Inquisitive Mind

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines for prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS. How shall Regulated Entities (REs) prevent financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS? Regulated Entities (REs) shall – Utilize the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) available on the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) developed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India to monitor and clean their customer database. REs shall also develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) incorporating the required action to be taken including, inter alia, updating the registered mobile number after due verification; enhanced monitoring of accounts linked to these revoked mobile numbers for preventing the linked accounts from being operated as Money Mules and / or being involved in cyber frauds, etc. Provide the verified details of their customer care numbers to DIP for enabling DoT to publish them on the “Sanchar Sa...

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forms committees to deliberate on various matters. A list of such committees is given below. Committee Chairperson Standing External Advisory Committee (SEAC) for evaluating applications for Universal Banks as well as Small Finance Banks Tenure of SEAC will be for 3 years. Previous SEAC was constituted under the chairmanship of Smt. Shyamala Gopinath, former Deputy Governor, RBI on March 22, 2021 Shri M K Jain, former Deputy Governor, RBI Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREE-AI) in the Financial Sector Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay Expert Committee on Benchmarking of its Statistics Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra, Deputy Governor, RBI Committee on MIBOR Benchmark Shri R. Subramanian Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards in RBI Regulate...

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued master directions on credit information reporting. What are Credit Information Companies (CICs)? Credit Information Companies (CICs) means companies that have been granted a certificate of registration by RBI under section 5 of the Credit Information Companies (Regulations) Act, 2005 (CICRA).  The following CICs are registered with RBI – CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services Private Limited Equifax Credit Information Services Private Limited Experian Credit Information Company of India Private Limited TransUnion CIBIL Limited What are Credit Institutions (CIs)? Credit Institutions (CIs) means the following institutions – Commercial Banks [including Small Finance Banks (SFBs), Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), and excluding Payment Banks] Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs), State Co-operative Banks and Central Co-operative Banks All India Financial Institutions (AIFIs) regulated by RBI – Export Import Bank of India (...

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is one of the popular methods of digital payments. This article covers the important developments regarding UPI. Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is an initiative by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) together with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA). UPI allows linking of multiple bank accounts in a single mobile application for real-time bank-to-bank payments using mobile number, virtual payment address (UPI ID) or by scanning a QR code. Benefits of UPI Single application for accessing different bank accounts. Offers peer-to-peer fund transfer, merchant payments and utility bill payments. Allows payments using mobile number; virtual payment address (UPI ID); scanning QR code; bank account number and IFSC; and Aadhaar number. Secured payment with Two Factor authentication. Funds are transferred in real-time (i.e. immediately). Available round the clock i.e. 24*365. Allows both sending ...

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines on Government Debt Relief Schemes (DRS). The guidelines include (i) model operating procedure (MOP) shared with the State Governments for their consideration while designing and implementing DRS and (ii) prudential guidelines for the Regulated Entities (REs). Model operating procedure (MOP) shared with the State Governments for their consideration while designing and implementing DRS What is Government Debt Relief Scheme (DRS)? Debt Relief Schemes (DRS) refer to schemes notified by the State Governments that entail funding by the fiscal authorities to cover debt obligations of a targeted segment of borrowers that the lending institutions are required to sacrifice / waive.  What are the pre-requisites for announcing DRS? Announcement / notification of DRS should include the specific stress or distress situation necessitating announcement of such support. DRS should be considered only as a measure of last resort when other measures to...