Ans. Under the PSS Act, 2007, dishonour of an electronic fund transfer instruction due to insufficiency of funds in the account etc., is an offence punishable with imprisonment or with fine or both, similar to the dishonour of a cheque under the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881. Subject to complying with the procedures laid down under the PSS Act, 2007, criminal prosecution of defaulter can be initiated in such cases. This provision was introduced to discourage dishonour of electronic payment instructions. (Section 25 of the Act)

Resident individuals can avail of the remittance facility under the Scheme once in a calendar year.

The bank or the PD can build this cost into the sale price or it can recover separately from the clients.

No. Charging a rate of interest below prevailing PLR where a bank has not contracted a fixed rate loan, to any borrower at any time would be deemed as violation of our directives. It would not be in order to provide rebate resulting into actual interest rates charged to any borrower working out lower than the PLR. However, there is no objection to allowing a rebate, as long as the effective interest rate is not below the PLR. The spirit behind the advice to banks to declare PLR with the approval of their ALCO/Board is to make it applicable uniformly at all branches and to impart transparency in the matter of lending rates.

The norms for investment under the ADR/GDR stock swap scheme are as follows:the Indian party has already made an ADR and/or GDR issue and such ADRs/GDRs are currently listed on any stock exchange outside India;such investment by the Indian party does not exceed the higher of the following amounts, namely: -amount equivalent of US$ 100 mn. oramount equivalent to 10 times the export earnings of the Indian party during the preceding financial year as reflected in its audited balance sheet, inclusive of all investments made under the automatic route in the same financial year.the ADR and/or GDR issue for the purpose of acquisition is backed by underlying fresh equity shares issued by the Indian party;the total holding in the Indian party by persons resident outside India in the expanded capital base, after the new ADR and/or GDR issue, does not exceed the sectoral cap prescribed under the relevant regulations for such investment;the valuation of the shares of the foreign company is made: -as per the recommendations of the Investment Banker if the shares are not listed on any stock exchange; orbased on the current market capitalisation of the foreign company arrived at on the basis of monthly average price on any stock exchange abroad for the three months preceding the month in which the acquisition is committed and over and above, the premium, if any, as recommended by the Investment Banker in its due diligence report in other cases.

There is no change in the settlement current settlement procedure. The trades concluded by GAH on the NDS-OM Web Module will flow directly in an STP manner to CCIL for settlement. The Primary Member will continue to be responsible for the settlement of such trades as well as maintenance of adequate margins with CCIL in respect of such trades.

Yes.  RBI or its agent may permit grant of information or inspection of document relating to Government security on being satisfied that the security in question has stood in the name of the applicant or of a person in whom the applicant has a representative/bonafide interest.

All regulated financial services entities of the Promoters/Promoter Group in which the Promoters/Promoter Group has ‘significant influence’ or ‘control’ (as defined in Accounting Standard 23) have to be held by a NOFHC. Regarding financial groups setting up banks, the existing NBFC must transfer all regulated financial services business to a new company and shares in that new company must be held by the NOFHC. Conversion of the NBFC into a non operating holding company would enable meeting the requirement of para 2(C)(iii) of the guidelines provided the listed non operating holding company meets the requirement of para(C)(ii)(b) of the guidelines i.e. the public hold not less than 51 percent voting equity shares in the company.

Yes, nomination facility is available as per the provisions of the Government Securities Act 2006 and Government Securities Regulations, 2007. A nomination form is available along with Application form. An individual Non - resident Indian may get the security transferred in his name on account of his being a nominee of a deceased investor provided that:

1. the Non-Resident investor shall need to hold the security till early redemption or till maturity; and

2. the interest and maturity proceeds of the investment shall not be repatriable.

No. Residuary Non-Banking Company cannot forfeit any amount deposited by the depositor, or any interest, premium, bonus or other advantage accrued thereon.

Ans. In case of any change in the OVDs such as change in demographic information or address or other documents submitted by a customer at the time of establishing account-based relationship, the customer shall submit the updated OVD/ other documents to the RE within 30 days of the update/ change/ modification in the documents for the purpose of updating the records at RE’s end. In such case, the RE shall acknowledge the receipt of the KYC documents to the customer.

Ans. The co-branding partner shall be a company incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 1956 / 2013. The co-branding partner can also be a Government department / ministry. In case the co-branding partner is a bank, then the same shall be licensed by RBI. In case of co-branding arrangement between a bank and a non-bank entity, the bank shall be the PPI Issuer. In case both the entities are non-banks, one of them will be pre-assigned, in advance, the role of issuer among themselves.

An applicant company satisfying the above norms may make such investment on an automatic basis and subsequently report the same in form ODG to the Reserve Bank.

Ans. Under the PSS Act, 2007, operating a payment system without authorization, failure to comply with the terms of authorization, failure to produce statements, returns information or documents or providing false statement or information, disclosing prohibited information, non-compliance of directions of Reserve Bank violations of any of the provisions of the Act, Regulations, order, directions etc., are offences punishable for which Reserve Bank can initiate criminal prosecution. Reserve Bank is also empowered to impose fine for certain contraventions under the Act. (Sections 26 and 30 of the PSS Act, 2007).

This facility is available for making remittance/s for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both. It is not available for purposes specifically prohibited (Schedule I) or regulated by the Government of India (Schedule II) of Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.

Modalities for obtaining payment from clients towards the cost of securities, accrued interest, wherever applicable and commission will have to be worked out by the bank or the PD and clearly stated in the contract made for the purpose with the client.

No. The banks need not charge a uniform rate of interest even under a consortium arrangement. Each member bank should charge rate of interest on the portion of the credit limits extended by them to the borrowers subject to their PLR.

A trade concluded on the NDS-OM Web Module need not be reported again on the PDO-NDS Module.

All regulated financial services entities of the Promoters/Promoter Group in which the Promoters/Promoter Group has ‘significant influence’ or ‘control’ (as defined in Accounting Standard 23) have to be held by a NOFHC. Regarding financial groups setting up banks, the existing NBFC must transfer all regulated financial services business to a new company and shares in that new company must be held by the NOFHC. Conversion of the NBFC into a non operating holding company would enable meeting the requirement of para 2(C)(iii) of the guidelines provided the listed non operating holding company meets the requirement of para(C)(ii)(b) of the guidelines i.e. the public hold not less than 51 percent voting equity shares in the company.

Yes. The bonds can be held in demat account. A specific request for the same must be made in the application form itself. Till the process of dematerialization is completed, the bonds will be held in RBI’s books. The facility for conversion to demat will also be available subsequent to allotment of the bond.