Report of the Working Group for Working Out Modalities on Dissemination of Information in Electronic Form - RBI - Reserve Bank of India
Report of the Working Group for Working Out Modalities on Dissemination of Information in Electronic Form
(Set up by the Regulation Review Authority) RESERVE BANK OF INDIA ContentsIntroduction Appendix: Annexure: In response to a suggestion received by the Regulation Review Authority set up by the Reserve Bank of India, a working group comprising Reserve Bank officials examined the possibility of making information available in electronic form to general public. The Working Group submitted its report to the Regulations Review Authority in September 1999. The Reserve Bank has in-principle accepted the recommendations of the Working Group and has set up a standing committee to monitor their implementation as also, to receive suggestions for further improvements in dissemination of information from the Reserve Bank. The report of the Working Group is being published on the website so as to receive suggestions from members of public regarding improvements in dissemination of information from the Reserve Bank. For sending suggestion, please click here: E-Mail : rbiprd@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in
At the meeting of the Advisory Group to the Regulation Review Authority (RRA) held on May 15, 1999, a suggestion received on e-mail was discussed. The suggestion related to creating a facility through which the Reserve Bank could send the information desired by the information seeker via e-mail once he registers his e-mail address with the Reserve Bank. As per the suggestion, the Reserve Bank notifications, clarifications, press releases, speeches, changes in Government security prices, weekly statistical supplement and such other documents could be e-mailed to the registered addressees as and when they are issued. The suggestion was to make the service available on a subscription basis but initially provide it free of cost. The RRA enquired the feasibility of the suggestion with the Chief General Manager, Department of Information Technology. It was noted that technologically this was possible and probably also not very costly. CGM, DIT pointed out that it might be possible to e-mail the information available on the website as it already existed in electronic format. Once the option was, however, given to information seekers, there may be requests in the future when information seekers may desire to have some information which was either not on the website or was not available in electronic form. This might pose difficulties. Against this background, it was felt that the issue of dissemination of information in electronic form needed thorough examination. The RRA suggested the formation of a working group for the purpose. The proposed working group might also look into all other relevant issues relating to dissemination of information in electronic form. 2. Constitution of Working Group The RRA indicated that a Working Group might be set up under the Chairmanship of Principal, Bankers Training College with the following as members:
The Working Group was chaired by Shri Y S P Thorat, Principal, BTC up to July 1999 and then by Shri C.R.Gopalasundaram. The Group also immensely benefitted from the participation of :
The terms of references of the Working Group were : 3.1 Identification: To identify information already available in electronic form and that which could and should be made available in electronic form. 3.2 Consolidation: To consolidate the information available in electronic form and to make a comprehensive database ready. 3.3 Classification and Rationalisation: To classify the available information in a manner that makes it available on the basis of some keywords; and to rationalise the available information base so as to avoid duplication and gaps as also to aggregate all the relevant information available on the basis of user requirements. 3.4 Accessibility and Dissemination: To make available information easily accessible through the website and such other means; as also to work out modalities for dissemination of information available in electronic form to identified target groups at a cost or without cost. The Working Group was requested to submit its report by the end of August 1999. The Group held several meetings and had detailed discussion of its terms of reference. It was decided that the Group need not look into the aspects of consolidation, classification and rationalisation of information as these were being considered by some other fora also set up by the RRA. 5.1 E-mailing information For further improving the accessibility of the information available in electronic form on the RBI website, the Group considered the suggestion forwarded by the RRA about e-mailing the information. The Group questioned the necessity to e-mail information to the information seeker when it was already available on the website and the information seeker could access it without much difficulty. The Group was informed that technologically, it was possible to e-mail information available in electronic form on the RBI website. This was possible without putting any additional pressure on the manpower resources of the Bank or the website manager. At the most, the Bank might have to incur small expenditure initially for developing a small program for the purpose. E-mailing by itself involves a nominal cost and it was possible, again technologically, to recover the charges for the service from the information seeker. In other words, without much additional burden, it would be possible for the Bank to e-mail information to those who wish to have it at their doorstep. The Group recommended that for better customer service, information already available on the website can be emailed to the information-seeker. This service might initially be provided without recovering the cost. It was, however, suggested that the Press Relations Division which was managing the website for the Bank, might, as an experiment, make this service available to a few select information seekers for some frequently accessed documents. PRD made the service available to a couple of banks and journalists for two documents available on the website, namely, the weekly statistical supplement and the press releases. The feedback received from the recipients indicated that though there was scope to further facilitate the receipt of information at the clients end, the service rendered was satisfactory in terms of its regularity. 5.2 Disposal of Individual Emails The Group was informed about the email responses provided by PRD to individual querists. Under the current scenario, the querists send emails to the Reserve Bank. These are downloaded by PRD and replied by it either directly or in consultation with the department that deals with the subject. This method of providing information/clarifications to individuals was working satisfactorily. There was, however, scope for further improving upon the response time. One suggestion was that the website itself could provide email addresses of departments so as to enable the querists to directly send their queries to the concerned departments. It was, however, felt that since the general public might not know to which department the query relates, it might be a better idea to have a centralised point for receiving the emails and then forward them to the concerned departments email box for direct disposal. Since PRD is currently the point of receipt, the Group suggested that it might, for the time being, continue to act as the centralised point for receiving and forwarding the e-mails. The website itself could provide email addresses and broad functions of departments so as to enable the querists to directly send their queries to the concerned departments. Once emails are forwarded to the departments concerned, the department might directly respond to the queries within a reasonable time, say not exceeding 15 days. The departments might designate one officer to download and respond to the queries promptly. The ultimate objective of the Bank might be to provide email boxes to all the officers who might receive and dispose of the queries directly. This might entail constantly evolving and communicating the Banks approach on emerging issues to officers to enable them to reply to queries uniformly. The Group also suggested that all the operational departments might attempt Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on subjects of common interest to reduce the number of queries raised. 5.3 Further Enhancing the accessibility of Information on the Website To further improve the accessibility of the information available on the website, it was suggested that the possibility of placing all the information available in published form on the website could be explored. Since this would be a formidable job, to begin with, important press releases issued since August 1996, when the RBI website was launched, might be placed on the website. These might be indexed subjectwise and properly hyperlinked. Email address of the concerned department should be mentioned in the body of the press communique, circulars, etc. that are to be placed on the website. The Group also suggested that a global search engine might be provided on the site. There was considerable discussion on the nature of search engine to be provided on the RBI site. It was argued that the entire database on the site be made queriable so that information seeker might be able to access the information without much difficulty. While making the database queriable was technically possible and also desirable, it was explained that each information seeker came with his unique query and syntax to the site. This was evident from the e-mail queries already being received and replied by PRD. In other words, given the different types of information available on the site and the types of information seekers, making the entire site queriable might be a complex and a time-consuming task. It was suggested that a technical note on search engines might be prepared. The note is enclosed at Appendix I. It was also suggested that as an experiment PRD might, in coordination with Exchange Control Department work on making the booklet on `Facilities for Non-Resident Indians queriable for publishing on the website. The booklet was made queriable and published on the website as Frequently Asked Questions. There is, however, scope for intelligent querying. It was concluded that working out a global search engine for the website was technically feasible and suitable efforts may be initiated to provide the same. The long-term objective of the search engine would be to facilitate intelligent querying. 5.4 Accessibility of Printed Publications The Group also felt that it might be useful to look at further improving the reach of the Banks printed publications. It was pointed out that the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy was looking at this issue. The Department of Banking Operations and Development had also recently signed a contract with a publisher to print and publish the circulars of all the operational departments of the Bank. 5.5 Extending the Scope of Information Availability The Group deliberated in considerable detail whether it would be within the purview of its terms of reference to look into extending the scope of information available to the public. Initially it was felt that the Group should restrict itself to looking at the modalities of disseminating only that information which is already in public domain and make suggestions towards improving its accessibility. It was, however, pointed out that this was already being done through the Reserve Banks website. It was argued that the Bank was increasingly moving towards transparency. Writing of master circulars and rewriting of manuals had already been undertaken by the Bank under separate fora. Moreover, it was pointed out that the Bank has already assigned the compilation and publication of circulars of various departments, namely, the ECD, DBOD, RPCD, IECD and DNBS, to a private party. The publications were already available in the market. In view of the Banks intention to increase the scope of information availability, the Group feels that information should be made available to the public, unless release of such information is detrimental to the interests of the Bank. 5.6 Survey of Information Available It was suggested that with a view to further enhancing the contents of the RBI website, a survey of information available on select central bank websites might be carried out. The survey results are placed at Appendix II. The Group has immensely drawn from the survey results while making its recommendations. Before making any recommendations towards expanding the scope of information availability from the Bank, it was felt necessary to ascertain the level of computerisation in all departments. This would ensure that the information within the departments is either already available in electronic form or could be made available in electronic form in a reasonable timeframe. The Group issued a small questionnaire to all the central office departments seeking information relating to the level of Computerisation in their respective departments. The summary of the replies received from the departments is enclosed at Appendix III. It was observed from the response received from the departments that most of the operational departments, barring the Rural Planning and Credit Department, make reasonable use of computers for generating information. The departments also have a plan to computerise the information available with them in the short or medium term. Among the support departments, the Department of Expenditure and Budgetary Control has the lowest level of Computerisation. The department has noted that it does not have information that could or needed to be made available to public. It may, however, be pointed out that `public for support departments of the Bank, such as, Department of Government and Bank Accounts or Department of Expenditure and Budgetary Control, comprises internal public, that is, the employees of the Bank. Providing information to internal public was as important as providing information to external public. Barring these, the Group did not find availability of information in electronic form to be a major issue. The questionnaire issued by the Group also queried the departments about their view on greater access to information emanating from their respective departments. The operational departments were by and large agreeable to release more information in public domain. There were, however, reservations in some areas. In this context, the Group decided to evolve some objective criteria on the basis of which the departments should be able to decide on bringing certain information in public domain. 5.7 Criteria for Releasing Information The Group agreed that it had no jurisdiction when a department had consciously decided not to make certain information available to public. The Group unanimously agreed that information should be made available only in raw form and not in the analysed form even on a demand from the information seeker unless such an analysis was already made by the department concerned and was available in public domain. It was further suggested that no information that was relevant from the viewpoint of customer service be classified as confidential. If necessary, information might be edited and released in the form of a press release to bring it into public domain without compromising the Banks position. The Group also suggested that while making available information to the public for the first time, the communication might be self-contained. Proper links might be provided to other relevant documents wherever required. The information after this might be updated as and when there were amendments in the Banks policies or instructions. The Group also recommends that since the website already contains a mass of information in an organised manner, its usability might be further enhanced by providing more and useful information, such as, information relating to :
Proper hyperlinks and search facility would enhance the usefulness of the website and the image of the Bank. The website could ultimately be integrated / linked with the data warehouse being developed by DESACS for the bank. Proper access controls at this time might be put in place between the website and the data warehouse. 5.8 Support of Departments For successful implementation of the recommendations, the co-operation and active participation of all the departments and offices of the Bank is essential.
Annexures - About the RBA: History and Structure of the Bank Technology for Web1. Working of "Search Engines" Search engines allow the user to enter keywords that are run against a database. Based on a combination of criteria (established by the user and/or the search engine), the search engine retrieves documents that match the keywords entered by the searcher. A simplified, generic search strategy might consist of the following steps:
This strategy can be applied to a search of any electronic information tool, including library catalogues and CD-ROM databases. Boolean logic is the term used to describe certain logical operations that are used to combine search terms in many databases. The basic Boolean operators are represented by the words AND, OR and NOT. Variations on these operators, sometimes called proximity operators, that are supported by some search engines, include ADJACENT, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY. Whether or not a search engine supports Boolean logic and the way in which it is implemented, is an important consideration when selecting a search tool. In most cases, an effective search strategy, the correct use of Boolean logic, and familiarity with the features of each of the search engines will lead to satisfactory results. However, there are additional techniques that may further improve results in particular circumstances. 2. Text Searching
This is the most common form of text search on the Web. Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords. Unless the author of the Web document specifies the keywords for the document, its up to the search engine to determine them. Essentially, this means that search engines pull out and index words that are believed to be significant. Words that are mentioned towards the top of a document and words that are repeated several times throughout the document are more likely to be deemed important. Some sites index every word on every page. Others index only part of the document. Some sites use a full-text indexing system, picking up every word in the text except commonly occurring stop words such as "a," "an," "the," "is," "and," "or". Some of the search engines discriminate upper case from lower case; others store all words without reference to capitalization. The Problem with Keyword Searching Keyword searches have a tough time distinguishing between words that are spelled the same way, but mean something different. This often results in hits that are completely irrelevant to the query. Some search engines also have trouble with so-called stemming--i.e. if the word "big" is entered should they return a hit on the word, "bigger?" What about singular and plural words? What about verb tenses that differ from the words entered by only an "s," or an "ed"? Search engines also cannot return hits on keywords that mean the same, but are not actually entered in the query. A query on heart disease would not return a document that used the word "cardiac" instead of "heart."
Unlike keyword search systems, concept-based search systems try to determine what is meant, not just what keyed in. In the best circumstances, a concept-based search returns hits on documents that are "about" the subject/theme being explored, even if the words in the document don't precisely match the words entered into the query. Excite is currently the best-known general-purpose search engine site on the Web that relies on concept-based searching. This is also known as clustering -- which essentially means that words are examined in relation to other words found nearby. How concept based searching works There are various methods of building clustering systems, some of which are highly complex, relying on sophisticated linguistic and artificial intelligence theory. Some of the engines stick to a numerical approach. Engine determines meaning by calculating the frequency with which certain important words appear. When several words or phrases that are tagged to signal a particular concept, appear close to each other in a text, the search engine concludes, by statistical analysis, that the piece is "about" a certain subject. For example, the word "heart", when used in the medical/health context, would be likely to appear with such words as coronary, artery, lung, stroke, cholesterol, pump, blood, attack, and arteriosclerosis. If the word heart appears in a document with others words such as flowers, candy, love, a very different context is established, and the search engine returns hits on the subject of romance. The problem with concept searching Concept searching often works better in theory than in practice. Concept-based indexing is a good idea, but it's far from perfect. The results are best when a number of words are entered, all of which roughly refer to the concept information on which is being sought.
Most sites offer two different types of searches--"basic" and "refined." In a "basic" search, a keyword is entered without sifting through any pull down menus of additional options. Depending on the engine, though, "basic" searches can be quite complex. Search refining options differ from one search engine to another, but some of the possibilities include the ability to search on more than one word, to give more weight to one search term than to another, and to exclude words that might be likely to muddy the results. It is possible to search on proper names, on phrases, and on words that are found within a certain proximity to other search terms. Some search engines also allow to specify in what form results are desired to appear in, and whether restriction of searching to certain fields or to specific parts of Web documents is sought. Many, but not all search engines allow the use of so-called Boolean operators to refine search. These are the logical terms AND, OR, NOT, and the so-called proximal locators, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY. Boolean AND means that all the terms specified must appear in the documents, i.e., "heart" AND "attack." Boolean OR means that at least one of the terms specified must appear in the documents, i.e. bronchitis, acute OR chronic. This is used in order not to rule out too much. Boolean NOT means that at least one of the terms specified must not appear in the documents. This might be used if anticipated results would be totally off base, i.e., nirvana AND Buddhism. NEAR means that the terms entered should be within a certain number of words of each other. FOLLOWED BY means that one term must directly follow the other. ADJ, for adjacent, serves the same function. A search engine that allows search on phrases uses essentially the same method (i.e., determining adjacency of keywords). Phrases: The ability to query on phrases is very important in a search engine. Those engines that allow it usually require enclosing the phrase in quotation marks, i.e., and "space the final frontier." Capitalization: This is essential for searching on proper names of people, companies or products. All the search engines have different methods of refining queries.
Most of the search engines return results with confidence or relevancy rankings. In other words, they list the hits according to how closely they think the results match the query. However, these lists often leave users shaking their heads on confusion, since, to the user, the results often seem completely irrelevant. Why does this happen? Basically it's because search engine technology has not yet reached the point where humans and computers understand each other well enough to communicate clearly. Most search engines use search term frequency as a primary way of determining whether a document is relevant. For researching diabetes if the word "diabetes" appears multiple times in a Web document, it's reasonable to assume that the document will contain useful information. Therefore, a document that repeats the word "diabetes" over and over is likely to turn up near the top of the list. If keyword is a common one, or if it has multiple other meanings, it ends with a lot of irrelevant hits. Some search engines consider both the frequency and the positioning of keywords to determine relevancy, reasoning that if the keywords appear early in the document, or in the headers, this increases the likelihood that the document is on target.
Some search engines are now indexing Web documents by the Meta tags in the documents' HTML (at the beginning of the document in the so-called "head" tag). What this means is that the Web page author can have some influence over which keywords are used to index the document, and even in the description of the document that appears when it comes up as a search engine hit. There is a lot of conflicting information out there on Meta tagging. There may be some confusion on this because different search engines look at Meta tags in different ways. Some rely heavily on Meta tags; others don't use them at all. It seems to be generally agreed that the "title" and the "description" Meta tags are important to write effectively, since several major search engines use them in their indices. Relevant keywords can be used in the title, and the titles on the different pages that make up the website, in order to target as many keywords as possible. As for the "description" meta tag, some search engines will use it as their short summary of the Uniform Resource Locator, so it should be ensured that description is one that will entice surfers to the site. Many search engine algorithms score the words that appear towards the top of the document more highly than the words that appear towards the bottom. Words that appear in HTML header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) are also given more weight by some search engines. It sometimes helps to give the page a file name that makes use of one of the prime keywords, and to include keywords in the "alt" image tags. One thing to be taken care is that some other company's trademarks should not be used as Meta tags. Some website owners have been sued for trademark violations because they've used other company names in the Meta tags. Remember that all the major search engines have slightly different policies. Very good features include the ability to see the terms from the referenced page that caused the hit (the 'see match on page' option at the bottom of each hit summary), and the search refining option to 'find similar pages', also at the bottom of each summary item. Query-by-Example: Query-by-Example uses a document as the basis for a query. As a result, it is a useful way to "find more documents just like this." Group-by-Subject: When users look for information on a broad topic, it's difficult to completely satisfy a user's information need. For example, without further information about a query on "bonds," it cannot be determined whether the user is interested in chemical bonds or municipal bonds. However, group-by-subject feature clusters the results of a search into related categories, helping the users to refine their information need. In the previous example, this tool would break up the articles on chemical bonds and articles on municipal bonds into separate clusters. The user can then focus on whichever cluster they find most interesting. Automatic summaries: These provide facilities to quickly go through a large collection of documents in no time. This contains display sentences, which describe the core concepts of a document. This means that no guess is required for what a document title means. There are no industry standards for web page databases. Each software vendor defines his own database design and implementation requirements. The webmaster must refer to the software vendor's documentation for specific installation and usage instructions. All Java web page databases are embedded in an HTML document using the applet tag. This tag allows the webmaster to specify a location on the screen for the applet window using height, width and alignment. Some web page databases are implemented as floating windows, so the only requirement is to define the applet window on the HTML page big enough to accommodate an activation button. The web page visitor would press this button to display the floating window. Not all browsers are capable of supporting Java applets. A webmaster should consider the following techniques to accommodate visitors using these older browsers. A text message can be displayed to inform the visitor that they need a Java enabled browser to utilize the search facility. Links to the browser vendors download sites can be provided to the visitor. The webmaster can include an image of the database screen to show the user the advantages of the system. And the webmaster can display hyperlinks to alternate HTML pages that contain alternate data in an HTML table or list. 3. Steps
The fact is that on the web the content is of paramount importance. Regardless of how fantastic a web site looks, no web surfer is going to spend more than 5 seconds at the site unless he is offered something of substance. The information present must be such that random web surfers will actually choose to return to the site because the information provided is helpful.
Once the content is in place, it is essential that time and energy is spent in thinking about how to present that content on the web. Like any medium, the web has its own quirks and intricacies that make content distribution different from other media such as print, radio, or television. A Web Architect is responsible for designing the workflow of the site. Web architects will typically be good at meta-vision, flow charts, and navigation templates and will be regular web surfers who seek out and analyze new navigation metaphors and strategies constantly.
Once the content and architecture are defined, it is time to make it all web accessible. To do so two things are needed: a set of HTML pages and a web server to distribute those pages. Typically this involves two functionaries: the Web Technician and the Web Site Administrator. A Web Technician is the person responsible for changing content into HTML documents. GUI tools such as Microsoft's FrontPage are simple and complete enough. A good code is the foundation of the web site and assures that long-term maintenance and modifications are smooth and cost efficient. A good Web Technician will be able to develop, and clearly document, site-wide coding standards. He must also understand HTML and all related content distribution technologies like Java and Shockwave well enough to choose correctly between the many options for many different types of situations. Further, a good technician will write code that is standardized and easy to read. A good web site also requires a Web Site Administrator who is responsible for installing, maintaining, trouble shooting, and providing security for web server hardware and software. Typically this person will be trained in UNIX or NT server administration and have some experience with traditional services like Telnet, Email and FTP. A Web Site Administrator should also be intimate with web security issues and low level technologies. However, it is often more important for Web Site Administrator to have solid people skills then to have technical prowess. The Web Site Administrator must be able to understand the needs of non-technical people and be able to explain technical issues in plain English.
So any site needs a Visual Designer who is responsible for logos, icons, navigation buttons, site-wide color standards, site-wide type face standards, side bars, menus, etc.... A good Visual Designer will be fluent in such applications as Adobe or Corel Draw as well as all the filters and tools for each. They will also be trained in the quirks and specifics of web graphics design as opposed to print graphics design and, like the Web Architect, will be an avid web surfer.
A Web Site Manager will make sure that communication lines are quick, efficient, and open. He will also facilitate lines of communications outside the department. Typically, for example, he will work closely with the ad/marketing department of the company. However, it is crucial that the Web Site Manager knows the place within the group. Web Site Managers are facilitators; they do not rule the web with an iron fist. For the most part, each member of the team will be far more trained in his or her area of expertise than the manager. What is crucial is that the Web Site Manager knows how to bring out the best of each member of the team and create the glue to bind each part to the whole. A webmaster is also an important player in website management. 4. Web Page Database Web page databases accessing small files on the client computer are usually faster than searches against a server side database or searches for text in an HTML document. Many client server systems are not designed for repeated searches because they forget the previous search criteria. This forces the user to type in all the criteria for each search request. Browsers do not provide search functions necessary for effective data query and reporting. The browsers "find" command does not allow complicated queries that require searching more than one column within the same record. For example the request "Find homes with at least 2000 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms" would require the user to use the "find" command for one field and then visually search the located records for the other fields.
No special training is required for a web page designer to install a web page database. No complicated programs need to be designed, written and tested. No database interfaces need to be established and no server database software needs to be purchased or deployed. The installation and configuration of the database is fast. Most web page databases come with a set of sample HTML documents that may be used as templates to build a new web page database.
Web page databases are stored on the web server as a Java class file and an optional sequential text file. These files are delivered over the Internet when a web page visitor requests the HTML that includes them. After the download, the web page database performs the query and report processing on the client computer. The Internet server only delivers documents and files to the client computer. This reduces the load on the server resources such as CPU and data transmission.
The Java language allows web page databases to utilize sophisticated features like sorting, column scrolling, and image manipulation. Innovative graphical techniques can be incorporated to assist the user in quickly locating data of interest. These databases may be designed as part of the HTML document or they may be floating windows on top of the HTML page. Comparative study of websites of five Central Banks The websites of the following leading Central Banks were accessed by us so as to ascertain the pattern of information available therein:
It was observed that the information available at the websites was grouped under the following broad heads:
The contents of these headings are elaborated in some detail below: 1. Welcome: This page provides an introduction to the central bank, its mission and organisational structure. In certain cases links to other websites of the bank are also provided. Information about the act(s) governing the bank has also been provided. Some of the sites have links to information about the city in which the office(s) of the banks are situated. Some banks allow the general public a facility of touring offices / vaults of the bank. Information about such tour programmes and bookings is also furnished. At some sites the welcome section is classified as "About us". This section provides information about the bank in a nutshell. For example information made available by Reserve Bank of Australia and Bank of Canada is given in Annexure 1. Central Banks have also put out their mission statement on the web. For example, the mission statement of Reserve Bank of New Zealand is given in Annexure 2. Banks also issue value statements on the web regarding values cherished by the organisation . As an example, the Reserve Bank of New Zealands statement of values is given in Annexure 3. Languages: Websites are generally in English. However, some websites are also available in other languages. For example, Bank of Canadas website allows an option to access the website in English or French. 2. Bank Information : This provides information about the contact address, email addresses, etc of the bank. It also provides information about the various acts administered by the bank and various subsidiaries and sister concerns. A few email addresses were available for contacting certain departments of the bank. The profile of the persons heading departments / offices of banks was available on the net. Fax and telephone numbers were available on their departmental page. Bank Information also includes details regarding
Every Central Bank has a Department of Banking Supervision. A handbook on Banking Supervision is also available on the web sites. Circulars and norms prescribed for bank licensing are also available on the web sites. In this regard, the Manual published by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is given in Annexure 4. World over, there appears to be a trend favouring independence to the central banks in their functioning. This is generally done by having an agreement between the Treasury (Ministry of Finance) and the Central Banks of the concerned countries. Such agreements are available on the websites for perusal by the general public. One such agreement of Reserve Bank of New Zealand is given in Annexure 5. It was also observed that circulars available on the websites are not consolidated. Links to the previous and subsequent circulars are however provided.
3. Education: A trend observed on all websites is availability of information pertaining to education of children. Other information covered under "Education" includes:
There are publications of the bank in the above areas. 4. Job Opportunities: Job vacancies within the bank are available on this web page. General information about joining the bank, job openings and career opportunities together with job requirements are spelt out so that prospective candidates can plan their career. Information about Summer Trainings, salary and benefits and campus recruitment is also available on this page. For example the Job Opportunity Page of FRBNY is given in Annexure 6. 5. News Items: Some of the bank sites classify the news items as press releases. This page has statements and speeches of top executives of the bank. Global foreign exchange news is also provided on the page. This page also covers announcements made by the bank including announcements regarding issual of new notes. Relevant publications and research material published during the last 1 month is also available. Illustratively, the News Release of Reserve Bank of New Zealand is given in Annexure 7. 6. Publications: All central banks publish books, reports, guidelines, statistics, circulars, etc. frequently. Information about these publications, access to publications and on-line availability of publications is given under this head. The information available on the website includes a comprehensive guide and online ordering facility for all publications and materials available from the central bank. As an example the publications information on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is given in Annexure 8. 7. Research: A variety of research papers are available on the web sites. The areas of research include Regional Economy, National Economy, International Economy, Monetary Economics, Fiscal Management, Bank Management, etc. Staff Papers are available on the web sites. The Research page of Federal Reserve Bank of New York is given in Annexure 9. 8. Statistics:
Incase some specific or historical financial statistics is available on the Web site or from the recorded messages, there is the facility of contacting the Public Information Office. Some web sites have a practical limit to data items that can be sent by e-mail. 9. Treasury / Government Bonds: As the banker to the government of the country, one of the primary duties of the central bank of each country is to provide service in issuing government bonds into the market. As a customer service to the public at large, the websites of the banks provide comprehensive information on government securities. This includes:
Information on Inflation indexed bonds and security is also given on this page. 10. What is new:
11. Disclaimer: This clause warns users that all visitors are subject to monitoring by the system personnel and that users have given express consent for that monitoring. It is also made clear that any evidence of criminal activity will be made available to the law enforcement officials .The banks have guaranteed that any personal details provided will not be passed on to any third party but will be used for customer service only. The banks do not use "cookies"* to gather information about visitors to their site. This clause also warns users that while banks provide linkages to various websites and documents, they do not provide any warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose of any information contained in documents produced and provided. Banks permit reproduction of any information contained at the website without limitation provided that it is not for the purpose of private gain. They also warn that this does not apply to other websites that may be linked to/from the banks website which are governed by the individual policies of the relevant providers. In case the user does not agree with any portion of the policy, he is urged to exit from the website and not continue the session. However, if the user continues to remain on the site, he is deemed to have IMPLICITLY CONSENTED to the disclaimer clause of the website. Disclaimer also mentions that various names and logos used at the website are the trademarks of the respective companies. The Disclaimer Statement on the Bank of Canada website reads as under: "These documents are electronic versions of Bank of Canada print publications. The Bank assumes no responsibility for any discrepancies that may have arisen in these electronic versions. The printed versions stand as the official record." 12. Keyword Search: Websites now generally provide for a key word search facility. For example search facility available on the Bank of Canada page is given in Annexure 12. Bank of Canada also provides an inflation calculator. The calculator function reads as under: " Use our new online calculator to show the effects of inflation on the value of money over the past 85 years". 13. Y2K Information: Web sites provide information about the Y2K readiness and the supervisory efforts including direction, circulars and studies for Y2K compliance. Websites provide information about the Y2K readiness of the Banking and Financial Industry in the country and the compliance of the Central Bank itself. Websites also provide linkages to the Y2K related websites. Some of them have disclaimer clause as follows: All information contained on the Y2K page referring to or discussing the Year 2000 or Century Date Change has not been verified. The bank takes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained therein." * Cookies help Web sites maintain user states. This means that Web sites can "remember" information about users to facilitate their preferences for a particular site, transparent user passwords, and so forth. More specifically, cookies allow Web sites (servers) to deliver simple data to a client (user); request that the client store the information; and return the information to the Web site. Cookies are passive files that are delivered to the client, stored on the client's hard drive, and returned in certain situations to the same server that provided the information in the first place.
Survey of Departments of Reserve Bank of India regarding the availability of information on computer media
As regards the information available on computer media for the past year, most of departments have placed some circulars/data on computer. Many of the departments have not placed any Manual/reports/publications in the computer at all. 2. Information available in
Regarding the information available in computer for last five years, most of the departments have not placed information in soft form. However, some departments have placed some circulars/data in soft form. 3. Information that should be available to public
Most of departments have suggested that all publications should be available to the public. But as regard to circulars/manuals/reports/data, most of the departments are of the view that the information should not be made available to the public. However, few departments have agreed to make available some selective information to the public.
4. Information that could be made available to public
Most of the departments have not shown their willingness for making the information available to the public. However, in case of dissemination of data, most of the departments feel that some data could be available to the public. Some of the departments also feel that all publications could be made public. 5. Information that need not be made available to public
Some of the departments have expressed their desire to be transparent as regard to the need for making the information public whereas some are quite conservative in dissemination of information in the form of circulars/manuals/reports/publications/data. 6. Plan for converting the information into electronic form
It is an encouraging trend to see an overwhelming majority of departments planning to convert the information into electronic form. 7. Timeframe for completing the conversion
Inspite of the tremendous interest shown by most of the Departments for converting the information into electronic form, they are yet to fix any timeframe for completing the conversion. Overview of the trend
13 out of 21 departments feel that circulars should not be made available to the public and 14 departments feel that circulars could not be made available to the public. 8 departments feel that the circulars need not be made available to the public.
17 out of 21 departments feel that the manuals should/could not be made available to public but on the contrary only 9 departments feel that manuals need not be made public.
About the RBA: Overview About the RBA:
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SECTION |
TITLE |
DOCUMENT REFERENCE |
DATE OF ISSUE |
PDF version of this page: Table of contents (3Kb) |
BS1 |
October 1997 |
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1. |
Statement of Principles: Bank Registration and Supervision (63Kb) |
BS2 |
July 1998 |
2. |
Capital Adequacy Framework (84Kb) |
BS3 |
December 1995 |
3. |
Application for status as a registered bank: Material to be provided to the Reserve Bank (19Kb) |
BS4 |
October 1998 |
4. |
Audit Obligations Under Part V of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 (34Kb) |
BS5 |
December 1995 |
5. |
Money Laundering (26Kb) |
BS6 |
October 1998 |
6. |
Market Risk Guidance Notes (54Kb) |
||
7. |
Registered Bank Disclosure Statements |
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Registered Bank Disclosure Regime (3Kb) |
Explanatory Information on the Registered Bank |
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NZ Gazette No. 126 |
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OIC1 Full and Half-Year - New Zealand |
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Incorporated Registered Banks Consolidated |
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Orders (125Kb) |
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OIC2 Off-Quarter - New Zealand Incorporated |
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Registered Banks Consolidated Orders |
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(113Kb) |
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OIC3 Full and Half-Year - Overseas |
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Incorporated Registered Banks Consolidated |
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Orders (121Kb) |
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OIC4 Off-Quarter - Overseas Incorporated |
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Registered Banks Consolidated Orders |
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(110Kb) |
POLICY TARGETS AGREEMENT
(RBNZ)
This agreement between the Treasurer and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (the Bank) is made under sections 9 (1) and 9(4) of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 (the Act), and shall apply for the balance of the Governors present term and for his next five year term, expiring on 31 August 2003. It replaces that signed on 10 December 1996.
In terms of section 9 of the Act, the Treasurer and the Governor agree as follows:
1. Price stability
Consistent with section 8 of the Act and with the provisions of this agreement, the Bank shall formulate and implement monetary policy with the intention of maintaining a stable general level of prices, so that monetary policy can make its maximum contribution to sustainable economic growth, employment and development opportunities within the New Zealand economy.
2. Policy target
a) In pursuing the objective of a stable general level of prices, the Bank shall monitor prices as measured by a range of price indices. The price stability target will be defined in terms of the All Groups Consumers Price Index excluding Credit Services (CPIX), as published by Statistics New Zealand.
b) For the purpose of this agreement, the policy target shall be 12-monthly increases in the CPIX of between 0 and 3 per cent.
c) Notwithstanding clause 2(a), the Treasurer and the Governor may agree to use an alternative index of consumer price inflation following the implementation of the changes to the calculation of consumer prices proposed by the
Government Statistician to take effect during 1999.
3. Unusual events
a) There is a range of events that can have a significant temporary impact on inflation as measured by the CPIX and mask the underlying trend in prices which is the proper focus of monetary policy. These events may even lead to inflation outcomes outside the target range. Such disturbances include, for example, shifts in the aggregate price level as a result of exceptional movements in the prices of commodities traded in world markets, changes in indirect taxes, significant government policy changes that directly affect prices, or a natural disaster affecting a major part of the economy.
b) When disturbances of the kind described in clause 3 (a) arise, the Bank shall react in a manner which prevents general inflationary pressures emerging.
4. Implementation and accountability
a) The Bank shall constantly and diligently strive to meet the policy target established by this agreement.
b) It is acknowledged that, on occasions, there will be inflation outcomes outside the target range. On those occasions, or when such occasions are projected, the Bank shall explain in Policy Statements made under section 15 of the Act why such outcomes have occurred, or are projected to occur, and what measures it has taken, or proposes to take, to ensure that inflation comes back within that range.
c) The Bank shall implement monetary policy in a sustainable, consistent and transparent manner.
d) The Bank shall be fully accountable for its judgments and actions in implementing monetary policy.
Signed
Hon Winston Peters
Donald T Brash
Treasurer
Governor
Reserve Bank of New Zealand
DATED at Wellington, this 15th day of December 1997
March 1990 (Brash/Caygill)
December 1990 (Brash/Richardson)
December 1992 (Brash/Richardson)
December 1996 (Brash/Birch)
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Date 3 May 1999 |
NEWS RELEASE |
Polymer $20 notes out today
New Zealands first polymer bank notes go into circulation today.
Other denominations will be issued in polymer during the remainder of 1999 and into the beginning of 2000. The next polymer notes to be issued will be the $10 and $100 notes in late June or early July, followed by the $5 note in October. The polymer $50 note will be issued early next year.
Reserve Bank Currency Department Chief Manager Brian Lang said today: "Polymer $20 notes are legal tender as of this morning. People should start seeing them this week, especially in money withdrawn from ATMs and banks.
"When people see these new notes they will want to know that they are seeing the real thing. Polymer notes do not have a silver thread, but do have two transparent windows which makes these notes much harder to forge. The notes also carry a shadow image of the Queen, which is similar to the watermark on the paper notes. The size and design is much the same as before, but the colours are brighter, and some fonts have been modernised.
"Paper $20 notes will remain legal tender but will gradually be withdrawn from circulation. By this time next year I would expect most of bank notes in circulation to be made of polymer," Mr Lang concluded.
The Reserve Bank has published a free pamphlet entitled The New Polymer Bank Notes, which shows the enhanced security features of polymer bank notes. Copies of the brochure can be obtained from the Reserve Bank by telephoning (04) 471 3660 or from the Banks website at www.rbnz.govt.nz.
Collectors $20 presentation packs of uncut pairs are available for sale from the Reserve Bank by telephoning 0800 426 467.
For further information contact:
Lisa Weekes
Communications Officer
Phone 04 471 3767, pager 026 103 787
Email weekesl@rbnz.govt.nz
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Staff Report Number 82 Heat Waves, Meteor
Showers, and Trading Volume: An Analysis of
Volatility Spillovers in the U.S. Treasury Market
by Michael J. Fleming and Jose A. Lopez
Monday, June 28, 1999
Added to the Banking Information page:
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Wednesday, June 23, 1999
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William J. McDonough: Remarks before the Money
Marketeers of New York University
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Credit Risk Modelling: Current Practices and Applications
Recommendations for Public Disclosure of Trading and Derivatives Activities of Banks and Securities Firms
Supervision of Financial Conglomerates
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you will find pages containing the exact phrase low inflation OR the word labour.
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