User institutions enjoy many advantages as well. For instance, Savings on administrative machinery and costs of printing, dispatch and reconciliation of paper instruments that would have been used had beneficiaries not opted for ECS Credit. Avoid chances of loss / theft of instruments in transit, likelihood of fraudulent encashment of paper instruments, etc. and subsequent correspondence / litigation. Efficient payment mode ensuring that the beneficiaries get credit on a designated date. Cost effective.

Foreign exchange for travel abroad can be purchased from banks against rupee payment in cash up to Rs.50,000/-. However, if the rupee equivalent exceeds Rs.50,000/-, the entire payment should be made by way of a crossed cheque/banker’s cheque/pay order/demand draft only.

Ans: No. NEFT is a credit-push system i.e., transactions can be originated by the payer / remitter / sender only to pay / transfer / remit funds to beneficiary.

An AD Category – I Bank / AD Category - II/ FFMC should apply to the respective Regional Office of the Reserve Bank, in Form RMC-F (as given in Part I: Annex-II of the FED Master Direction No.18/2015-16 on Reporting under FEMA 1999) for appointment of franchisees under this Scheme. The application should be accompanied by a declaration that while selecting the franchisees, adequate due diligence has been carried out and that such entities have undertaken to comply with all the provisions of the franchising agreement and prevailing Reserve Bank regulations regarding money changing. Approval would be granted by the Reserve Bank for the first franchisee arrangement. Thereafter, as and when new franchisee agreements are entered into, these would have to be reported to the Reserve Bank in Form RMC-F on a post-facto basis along with similar declaration as indicated above.

RBI will issue securities only in SGL form. It will credit the securities to the CSGL account of the aggregator or facilitator. They will in turn credit the securities to the gilt account or dematerialized account of the investors.

Name and address of the complainant, the name and address of the branch or office of the bank against which the complaint is made, facts giving rise to the complaint supported by documents, if any, the nature and extent of the loss caused to the complainant, the relief sought from the Banking Ombudsman and a declaration about the compliance with conditions which are required to be complied with by the complainant under Clause 9(3) of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme.

The Government of India notifies the auction of government securities. It also notifies the amount and whether it will be a new loan or reissue of an existing loan. It also announces whether the bidders have to bid for the price or the coupon(interest rate).The competitive bidders put in competitive bids for the price or the coupon. The cutoff price or the coupon is then announced by RBI on the basis of the bids received. All successful bidders will be allotted the security auctioned either in full or in part.Example:Recently, an auction was held for government of India's 11 year Government Stock in which the notified amount was Rs.5,000 crore. The coupon rate for cut-off yield was 9.40 per cent. The weighted average yield was, however, 9.36 per cent since allotments were made to different successful bidders at the rates quoted by them at or below the cut off rates (i.e. multiple price auction system).

In case of a term deposit standing in the name of a deceased depositor, interest will be paid in the following manner.i) If the payment of deposit is claimed before the maturity, the interest is payable at the rate prevalent on the date on which the deposit was placed with the bank and as applicable to the period for which the deposit remained with the bank, without charging any penalty.ii) In the event of death of the depositor before the date of maturity and the payment of deposit is claimed after the date of maturity, the interest is payable at the contracted rate upto the date of maturity. From the date of maturity till the date of payment of the deposit, the bank shall pay interest at simple rate of interest prevalent on the date of maturity as applicable to the period for which the deposit remained with the bank from the date of maturity of the deposit till its payment.iii) In the case of death of the depositor after the date of maturity of the deposit the bank shall pay interest at savings deposit rate operative on the date of maturity from the date of maturity till the date of payment.

The criteria for investment under the automatic route are as under:The total financial commitment of the Indian party in Joint Ventures/Wholly Owned Subsidiaries in any country other than Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan is up to US$ 100 million or its equivalent in any one financial year or 100% of the net worth whichever is lower, and the investment is in a lawful activity permitted by a host country. The financial commitment in respect of Joint Ventures/Wholly Owned Subsidiaries in Myanmar and SAARC countries (other than Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan) is up to US$ 150 million or its equivalent in any one financial year. (Please also see answer to Question No. 20).The Indian party is not on the Reserve Bank caution/defaulters list or under investigation by the Enforcement DirectorateThe Indian party routes all the transactions relating to the investment in a Joint Venture/Wholly Owned Subsidiary through only one branch of an authorised dealer to be designated by it.In respect of investments in non-core activities (refer Ques.15) the investing company has a proven track record.

Ans : Yes. The maximum exposure that an IDF-NBFC can take on individual projects will be

1. at 50 percent of its total Capital Funds (Tier I plus Tier II) and not to Owned Funds as in the case of NBFCs.

2. An additional exposure up to 10 percent could be taken at the discretion of the Board of the IDF-NBFC.

3. In addition, if the financial position of the IDF-NBFC is satisfactory RBI may, on being satisfied and upon receipt of an application from an IDF-NBFC, permit additional exposure up to 15 percent (over 60 percent) subject to such conditions as it may deem fit to impose regarding additional prudential safeguards.

• IIBs would be a G-Sec and therefore, would be eligible for short-sale and repo transactions.

No. In the event of a bank's liquidation, the liquidator prepares depositor wise claim list and sends it to the DICGC for scrutiny and payment. The DICGC pays the money to the liquidator who is liable to pay to the depositors. In the case of amalgamation / merger of banks, the amount due to each depositor is paid to the transferee bank.

Ans. Residents may book their tickets in India for their visit to any third country. For instance, residents can book their tickets for travel from London to New York, through domestic/foreign airlines in India. However, the same (air tickets) would be a part of the traveller’s overall LRS entitlement of USD 250,000.

The Ombudsman endeavours to promote settlement of the complaint through conciliation/ mediation by agreement between the complainant and the System Participant. If the terms of settlement (offered by the System Participant) are acceptable in full and final settlement of one's complaint, the Ombudsman will pass an order as per the terms of settlement which becomes binding on the System Participant and the complainant. If the System Participant is found to have adhered to the extant norms and practices in vogue and the complainant has been informed to this effect through appropriate means and complainant’s objections, if any, are not received by the Ombudsman within the time frame provided, the Ombudsman may pass an order to close the complaint.

Response

Yes. However, the decision to allow services beyond the minimum prescribed has been left to the discretion of the banks who can either offer additional services free of charge or evolve requirements including pricing structure for additional value-added services on a reasonable and transparent basis to be applied in a non-discriminatory manner with prior intimation to the customers. Banks are required to put in place a reasonable pricing structure for value added services or prescribe minimum balance requirements which should be displayed prominently and also informed to the customers at the time of account opening. Offering such additional facilities should be non - discretionary, non-discriminatory and transparent to all ‘Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account’ customers. However such accounts enjoying additional facilities will not be treated as BSBDAs.

Ans. No, the RTGS system does not accept future value dated transactions.

RBI has recommended the following steps to banks for reducing the timeframe for collection of USD cheques -

• Review the collection policy on an on-going basis so as to explore faster methods of realisation.

• Reduce the transit period for movement of cheques from the collecting branches to the centralised pooling branch and from the centralised pooling branch to CBs.

• Explore feasibility of forming / pooling cheques of various collecting banks to a common service bureau to avail benefits arising out of increased volumes, reduced infrastructure costs, etc.

• Explore the possibility of leveraging on Check-21 facility.

• Use of efficient and reliable courier / postal service.

The redemption amount will be credited to the bank account furnished by the person in the application form.

The NBFC Ombudsman endeavours to promote a settlement of the complaint through conciliation/ mediation by agreement between the complainant and the NBFC. If the terms of settlement (offered by the NBFC) are acceptable in full and final settlement of one's complaint, the NBFC Ombudsman will pass an order as per the terms of settlement which becomes binding on the NBFC and the complainant. If the NBFC is found to have adhered to the extant norms and practices in vogue and the complainant has been informed to this effect through appropriate means and complainant’s objections, if any, are not received by the NBFC Ombudsman within the time frame provided, the NBFC Ombudsman will pass an order to close the complaint.

Since the swap with RBI will be undertaken in multiples of USD one million, it is possible that a bank may have to wait before it mobilises a minimum amount of USD one million. In such a case, the banks will be allowed to undertake swaps for tenors of marginally less than three years provided they have mobilised fresh eligible FCNR (B) for minimum original tenor of three years with one year lock in period.