ANS: All unclaimed deposits/accounts that are part of Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund of RBI can be searched in UDGAM portal. [Please refer to FAQs on DEA Fund scheme, 2014].

ANS: The banks are required to transfer the credit balance in the accounts referred in Q No 2 above, to the DEA Fund on the last working day of the month subsequent to the month of completing 10 years of its continuous inoperative or unclaimed status.
For example, the deposits becoming due to be transferred to DEA Fund (i.e., unclaimed for 10 years), in the month of April shall be transferred to the DEA Fund on the last working day in the month of May.

Ans: The SARFAESI Act, 2002 does not classify possession as symbolic or physical, and these are conventions that have evolved. Accordingly, the REs shall display information on secured assets possessed under Section 13 (4) of the SARFAESI Act, 2002. This includes the display of both symbolically and physically possessed assets on the website of REs.

The material terms and conditions may be defined, if not already done, as per the credit policy of the bank and they may vary from one category of loan to another, and also, from lender to lender based on their own assessment.

Local cheque collection charges are decided by the concerned bank from time to time and communicated to customer through their CCP as part of the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers.

Banks cannot charge more than the following for outstation cheques:

Up to and including Rs.5,000 – Rs.25 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.5,000 and up to and including Rs.10,000 – not exceeding Rs.50 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.10,000 and up to and including Rs.1,00,000 – not exceeding Rs.100 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.1,00,000 – left to the banks to decide. No additional charges such as courier charges, out of pocket expenses, etc., should be levied.

It may be noted, no outstation cheque collection charges to be levied if the collecting bank and the paying bank are located within the jurisdiction of the same CTS grid even though they are located in different cities.

Ans : IDF-MFs can be sponsored by banks and NBFCs. Only banks and Infrastructure Finance companies can sponsor IDF-NBFCs.

A link to ATS has been provided in the RBI website http://www.rbi.org.in.

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises vide Office Memorandum (OM) No. 5/2(2)/2021-E/P & G/Policy dated July 2, 2021 has allowed Udyam registration for retail and wholesale trade. Detailed guidelines are available in our circular FIDD.MSME & NFS.BC.No.13/06.02.31/2021-22 dated July 07, 2021.

1. The liquid instruments are Level 1 High Quality Liquid Assets as per the extant guidelines.

2. The REs can temporarily park proceeds of green deposits, pending allocation towards green activities/ projects, in liquid instruments with maximum maturity upto one year (This will have to be specified under the Financing Framework).

3. The framework does not envisage any penalty for non-allocation of proceeds towards green activities/ projects; however, it shall be subject to supervisory review.

Ans: IIBs classified under AFS and HFT may be valued at clean price quoted in the market at the time of acquisition. At the time of subsequent mark to market, the clean price quoted in the market as available from trades/quotes or clean price provided by FIMMDA may be treated as market value. Once this market value has been determined, the standard accounting procedures as applicable to HFT/AFS may be applied.

• Yes, capital protection will be provided by paying higher of the adjusted principal and face value (FV) at redemption.

• If adjusted principal goes below FV due to deflation, the FV would be paid at redemption and thus, capital will get protected.

উত্তর. একজন গ্রাহকের জন্য, একটি ডব্লিউএলএ ব্যবহার করা শুধুমাত্র একটি অন্য যেকোন ব্যাংকের এটিএম ব্যবহার করার মতই (ব্যাংক যারা কার্ড জারি করা ব্যাংক নয়) শুধুমাত্র নাগাদ টাকা জমা দেওয়া এবং কয়েকটি মূল্য জড়িত পরিষেবার সঙ্গে থাকা সুবিধাগুলির ক্ষেত্রে ডব্লিউএলএতে অনুমোদিত নয়।

Ans. Only MSMEs can participate as sellers in TReDS.

Ans. The detailed procedural instructions issued by RBI are contained in the A.P.(DIR Series) Circular No. 22 dated March 17, 2020 and in Master Direction No.16/2015-16 dated January 1, 2016 on Export of Goods and Services, as amended from time to time.

Answer: Yes, for opening of Special Rupee Vostro Account, prior approval of RBI would be required. The bank willing to open Special Rupee Vostro Account for bank of the partner country should have a good level of business resilience and financial health. Second, they need to have experience in facilitating trade/investment transactions and capability to provide other financial services. Third, AD banks should have good correspondent relationships with banks in partner countries.

RBI issued circular RPCD.SME&NFS.BC.No.69/06.12.05/2009-10 dated April 12, 2010, on Collateral Free Loans - Educational Loan Scheme, making it mandatory that banks must not obtain collateral security in the case of education loans upto ₹4 lakh.

Ans. All collateral-free loans to individual/s belonging to low-income households, i.e., households having annual income up to ₹3,00,000 are treated as microfinance loans.

Answer: Permitted forex transactions executed electronically should be undertaken only on electronic trading platforms (ETPs) authorised for the purpose by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or on recognized stock exchanges (National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE), BSE Ltd. (BSE) and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (MSE)) as per the terms and conditions specified by RBI from time to time. The list of authorised ETPs is available here. As per FEMA, resident persons are not permitted to undertake forex transactions on unauthorised ETPs.

Resident persons undertaking forex transactions on unauthorised ETPs shall render themselves liable for penal action under FEMA.

• There will be two parts in the interest rate. One, fixed rate of 1.5% per annum and second, inflation rate.

• For example, if inflation rate during the six months is 5%, then interest rate for this six months would be 5.75% (i.e. fixed rate -0.75% and inflation rate -5%).

Ans: Leverage ratio refers to outside liabilities on the balance sheet of an NBFC-P2P Platform that it can raise divided by its owned funds. Customers’ funds lent/borrowed by using the platform is not reckoned as outside liability of the platform.

The requirement of ICA in respect of the entity to which lending institutions have exposure is a basic feature of Prudential Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets dated June 7, 2019, and consequently that of the Resolution Framework. There is sufficient flexibility to the lending institutions to formulate ICAs in respect of a legal entity to which they have exposure that address the specific requirements of each borrowers on a case to case basis, including designing different resolution approaches for different projects under the same borrower within an ICA. Similarly, apart from the escrow account required to be set up at the legal entity level as required by the Resolution Framework, there is no prohibition in setting up additional separate escrow accounts at each project level, if the lenders desire so. Only in respect of borrowers belonging to real estate sector, and have both residential and commercial real estate business, the prescribed thresholds for the financial parameters may be applied at the project level.

Yes. There are various ways of collecting (realising) USD denominated cheques. The collection process followed by banks (presenting banks) varies depending on the institutional arrangements put in place by them. There are basically three types of arrangements adopted by banks–

i. Cash Letter Arrangement (CLA): Cheques are sent by the presenting banks in India to their correspondent banks (CBs) in USA for domestic clearing. Funds are collected (realised) by the CBs and credited to the account of the presenting bank maintained in US. Such accounts are known as NOSTRO accounts. For cheques sent under CLA the CB gives provisional credit to the bank on a pre-determined date (which varies from 7 to 9 days after tendering of cheque to the CB). However, the provisional credit will be subjected to a cooling period. After the cooling period, the customer’s account with the presenting bank in India is credited. In case of secured collection facility, the CB provides a guaranteed credit but at an additional cost.

(Cooling period is the time up to which banks wait after receiving provisional credit for the amount of cheque in their Nostro account for possible return of the cheque under provisions of the laws of USA by the drawee bank, before giving credit to the customers. More details are available under Question 9.)

(Secured Collection is a facility extended by the CBs. Under this facility, the CBs provide guaranteed final credit without recourse within a confirmed time period unlike normal collection service. Hence the collection time period is better under this facility. CBs offering this facility normally fix a cap for the amount of individual cheques collected under the arrangement. The CBs absorb any subsequent recall of payment by the drawee bank as per US laws. The bank offering such service charge an additional amount for giving credit without recourse.)

ii. Direct Collection Arrangement (DCA) : Cheques are sent by the banks in India directly to the drawee banks in USA for collection. Usually collection services ensure receipts of clear funds i.e., risk of return is almost eliminated. Therefore, high value cheques are generally sent under collection though the time taken may be more.

iii. Final Credit Services (FCS) : These services are offered by some CBs. The CB offering the service guarantees confirmed credit against the instrument. Under this arrangement banks receive final credit in their Nostro accounts without any recourse. This service normally does not have any cooling period as the cooling period is factored by the CBs before releasing the clear funds.

iv. Check-21 Facility : The System has been facilitated under Check-21 Legislation. It works more or less like CTS. When using check 21 facility, dealings are cleared utilizing the exchange of check images from bank to bank. It saves time in transit.

Ans. Only applicants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Hong, Kong, Macau and Pakistan shall have to register with the State Police authorities. Copy of approval letter for persons from these countries shall be marked by the AD Category I bank to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Internal Security Division – I, Government of India, New Delhi for necessary action and record. All other countries are exempted from registering with the State Police authorities.

Ans: The debit cards can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM, purchase of goods and services at points of sale (PoS) terminals or e-commerce (online purchase). They can be used domestically, or internationally.

On February 27, 2017 Government of India notified the Specified Banknotes (Cessation of liabilities) Act 2017. The Act repealed the Specified Banknotes (Cessation of liabilities) Ordinance 2016 providing for cessation of liabilities for the Specified Banknotes (SBNs) and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto, with effect from December 31, 2016. The SBNs cease to be the liabilities of the Reserve Bank under Section 34 of the RBI Act and cease to have the guarantee of the Central Government.

A grace period has been provided during which the Specified Bank Notes can be deposited at five RBI Offices (Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Nagpur by Indian citizens who make a declaration that they were outside India between November 9 and December 30, 2016, subject to conditions or any class of persons for reasons that may be specified by notification by the Central Government. The Reserve Bank, if satisfied after making the necessary verifications, that the reasons for failure to deposit the notes till December 30, 2016 are genuine, will credit the value of notes in the KYC (Know Your Customer) compliant bank account of the tenderer.

The grace period for resident Indians expired on March 31, 2017. For non- resident Indians (Indian passport holders), the grace period is till June 30, 2017.

For details on the exchange counter timings at the five aforesaid Regional Offices of RBI, please click here.

Any person aggrieved by the refusal of the Reserve Bank to credit the value of notes as mentioned above may make a representation to the Central Board of the Reserve Bank within 14 days of the communication of such refusal to him/her.

In terms of Section 6 of the Act, whoever knowingly or wilfully makes any false declaration shall be punishable with a fine which may extend to 50,000 INR or five times the amount of the face value of the SBNs tendered whichever is higher.

In terms of Section 5 of the Act, with effect from December 31, 2016 no person shall knowingly or voluntarily hold, transfer or receive any specified banknotes. After the expiry of grace period, holding of not more than 10 notes in total, irrespective of denomination or not more than 25 notes for the purpose of study/ research/ numismatics is permitted. Also, nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the holding of specified banknotes by any person on the direction of a court in relation to any case pending in the court. For deposit of confiscated SBNs, GoI has notified Specified Ban Notes (Deposit of Confiscated Notes) Rules 2017 on May 12, 2017.

In terms of Section 7, contravention of Section 5 shall be punishable with fine which may extend upto 10,000 INR or five times the face value of the SBNs involved in the contravention, whichever is higher.

In case the contravention/default in terms of Sections 6 and 7 is by a company, every person who was in charge of and responsible to the company at the time of contravention/ default shall deemed to be guilty and will be liable to be proceeded against and punished. If the offence is proved to be attributable to the conduct by any director/manager/secretary/officer/employee of the company, such person shall also be deemed to be guilty of the offence and will be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.