Draft National Strategy for Financial Education

My personal Tips :

01)   Catch them young:

n  Create a National Finance cartoon family.

n  Develop TV shows, stories, contests, etc., around the cartoon family.

 

 

02)   Finance quotient qualifications:

–          Finance quotient exams (online) can be introduced. This is similar to the hindi level exams.

–          The best body to conduct these exams can be the   proposed ‘National Institute of Financial Education (NIFE)’

–          Appropriate ‘certificates’, to be issued to the persons clearing the various levels.

• The persons, who have achieved proficiency at the highest level, can be made honorary ‘Finance Educators’, recognition to inspire others.

 

03)    Quiz Shows:

• Quiz shows are a great tool to attract the target audience to ‘Financial Education’.
• The Quiz shows should be conducted year-on-year with district/state/national level rounds.
• The Quiz shows should be telecasted in major TV channels to engage the target audience.
• As the numbers of years pass, the Quiz Show will have a loyal following, thereby boosting the ‘Finance quotient’, amongst our countrymen.

 

 

All the above three to be developed in English, National Language i.e Hindi and major regional languages.

Interest Rate on Saving Bank Deposits in India-Banks can decide.

Cheers, starting today, Indian Banks can decide the Interest on Saving Bank deposits.

This has widely discussed at various levels i.e bank customers, bankers, Indian Bank Association meetings, RBI meetings and conferences and finally today, RBI has freed the Interest on Saving Bank deposits.

The relevant notification is RBI/2011-12/233 DBOD.Dir.BC. 42/13.03.00/2011-12 dt.October 25, 2011

All Scheduled Commercial Banks

It can be viewed @

http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=6779&Mode=0

At present the notification is not for RRB’s, but for RRB’s, a similar notification is expected in few days.

The Banks are free to determine their savings bank deposit interest rate, but subject to the following   two conditions:

01) The bank will have to offer a uniform interest rate on savings bank deposits up to Rs.1 lakh, irrespective of the amount in the account within this limit.

02) For savings bank deposits over Rs.1 lakh, a bank may provide differential rates of interest, if it so chooses, subject to the condition that banks will not discriminate in the matter of interest paid on such deposits, between one deposit and another of similar amount, accepted on the same date, at any of its offices.

The above revised Guidelines would be applicable to savings bank deposits of resident Indians only.

The interest  rate on Non-Resident (External) Accounts Scheme and Ordinary Non-Resident Deposit under savings account, which has been prescribed at 4 per cent per annum at present, will continue to be regulated until further review.

Over the next couple of months, I will be adding various tit-bits on the developments in this new banking frontier. This is a completely new field, both for the Bankers as well as the bank customers.

YES Bank, is the first Bank to announce the hike in Saving Bank Deposit Rate to 6%.

Keep Saving folks.

Well, the Indian Posts also has considerable balances under it’s PostOffice Savings Account Scheme. Currently, the ROI on Post Office Saving Balances is still 3.50% and with today’s news, there will be further strain on the Post Office Saving Balances.

Section 23 of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 – Mobile Branches

Section 23 of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 –
Mobile Branches

Today Reserve Bank of India, DBOD, Vide Notification No.RBI/2010-11/132
DBOD.No. BL.BC.27/22.01.001/2010-11,dt.July 23, 2010, addressed to All Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs), has liberalized the rules for Opening of Mobile Branches and Mobile ATM’s.

The Highlights are:

01) Notification pertains to Section 23 of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 –
Mobile Branches and Mobile ATMs

02) Mobile Branches

a) Grant general permission to domestic scheduled commercial banks (other than RRBs) to operationalise Mobile branches in Tier 3 to Tier 6 centres  (with population upto 49,999 as per Census 2001) and in rural, semi urban and urban centres in the North Eastern States and Sikkim, subject to reporting to RBI.

b) The scheme of mobile branch envisages the extension of banking facilities through a well protected van with arrangements for two or three officials of the bank sitting in it with books, safe containing cash etc.

c) The mobile unit would visit the places proposed to be served by it on specific days / hours.

d) The mobile branch should not visit villages / centres which are served by co-operative banks and places served by regular branch of commercial banks.

e) The mobile branch should be stationed in each village/ location for a reasonable time on specified days and specified hours, so that its services could be utilized properly by customers.

f) The business transacted at the mobile branch shall be recorded in the books of the base branch/data centre.

g) The bank may give wide publicity about the mobile branch in the village, including details of “specified days and working hours” at various locations so as to avoid any confusion to local customers; and any change in this regard should also be publicized.

h) In order to inform public/customers, arrangement should be made to display these details in the areas serviced by the mobile branch.

The above liberalization should banks to be innovative while servicing the needs of the customers in Unbanked areas.

There can be more than 1 Mobile branch of different scheduled banks, visiting the same place at the same time. Such competition is better, as competition is the path to customer delight.

For eg: At a weekly shanty(local market day), as the villagers gather in large numbers, multiple banks might decide to operate the Mobile Branches.   

RBI Notification – Credit Card Operations of Banks

RBI Notification – Credit Card Operations of Banks in India

Reserve Bank of India, DBOD, today has issued a Notification reiterating that the Banks should adhere to the guidelines, both in letter and spirit, as mentioned in RBI/2006-2007/377
DBOD No. Dir.BC.93/ 13.03.00/2006-07 Dt.May 7, 2007

Today’s RBI Notification can be accessed at

http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=5866&Mode=0

The reference number is:  RBI/2010-11/109 DBOD. FSD.BC.No. 25 /24.01.011/2010-11 Dt.July 9, 2010.

This notification is a right step, to promote healthy credit card operations in our country. The prime objective of Reserve Bank of India is

To promote ePayments

To promote fit competitive practices

To safeguard the consumer’s interests

To minimize the number of credit card complaints received by Banking Ombudsman

Wondering if the above Notification is a pointer towards a comprehensive Web-Based Credit Card Complaint Management System?