Answer: A resident individual can open a foreign currency account with a bank outside India in the following cases:

1) A resident student who has gone abroad for studies for the period of stay abroad. All credits to the account from India should be made in accordance with FEMA and the rules and regulations made thereunder. On the student’s return to India after completion of studies, the account will be deemed to have been opened under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

2) A resident who is on a visit to a foreign country for the period of stay abroad. The balance in the account should be repatriated to India on return of the account holder to India.

3) A person going abroad to participate in an exhibition/ trade fair for crediting the sale proceeds of goods. The balance should be repatriated to India within one month from the date of closure of the exhibition/ trade fair.

4) A resident individual, being an exporter, for realisation of full export value and receipt of advance remittance by the exporter towards export of goods or services.

5) The following persons for remitting/ receiving their entire salary payable to them in India:

1. A foreign citizen resident in India, who is an employee of a foreign company and is on deputation to the office/ branch/ subsidiary/ joint venture/ group company in India;

2. An Indian citizen who is an employee of a foreign company and is on deputation to the office/ branch/ subsidiary/ joint venture/ group company in India; and

3. A foreign citizen who is a resident in India and is employed with an Indian company.

6) For the purpose of sending remittances under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme.

Ans.  Following documents are required for opening of an account by an individual:

(a) any one of the following Officially Valid Documents (OVDs) or the equivalent e-document thereof, containing details of his name and address, viz.,

• the passport,
• the driving licence, 
• proof of possession of Aadhaar number,
• the Voter's Identity Card issued by the Election Commission of India,
• the job card issued by NREGA duly signed by an officer of the State Government, and
• the letter issued by the National Population Register.

(b) the Permanent Account Number (PAN) or the equivalent e-document, thereof, or Form No. 60 as defined in Income-tax Rules, 1962; and

(c) other documents in respect of the nature of business and financial status of the customer, or the equivalent e-documents thereof, as may be required by the RE.

Ans: Yes, the intent of the circular is to allow flexibility to the customer to switch from floating rate loan to fixed rate loan or vice versa subject to applicable charges. The RE is required to specify the number of times a borrower will be allowed to exercise the switch option during the tenor of the loan under its Board approved policy.

Ans: e₹ wallet is available and supported both on Android and iOS mobile devices.

In terms of para 3(i) of the circular, the prescribed guidelines will not affect the normal procedures for compounding of interest in the loan account. Therefore, REs may charge interest on unpaid interest (including on unpaid EMI) at the contracted rate of interest till the date of remediation, and not at the penal rate of interest.

Ans. No. In terms of paragraph 9.1.6 of these Directions, the benefit of additional interest on term deposits held by bank’s staff member/ retired staff member singly or jointly with family members is only available where the staff member/ retired staff member is the principal account holder.

A Deputy Ombudsman is a senior officer appointed by RBI to assist the RBI Ombudsman (refer Question 4) in matters of resolution of complaints and in handling certain complaints and the functions entrusted under the Scheme. The Deputy Ombudsman endeavors to promote settlement of a complaint by agreement between the complainant and the RE through facilitation or conciliation or mediation and dispose complaints as discussed in Question 24.

Ans.: If the company’s accounts are not audited before the due date of submission, i.e. July 15, then the ITES survey schedule should be submitted based on unaudited (provisional) account.

Ans: The Master Directions require reporting of frauds perpetrated only in the Group entities (subsidiaries / affiliates / joint ventures etc.) belonging to the reporting NBFCs / HFCs. In other words, the reporting requirement is not applicable to the other entities in wider Group to which the reporting NBFC / HFC belongs, which may not be subsidiaries / affiliates / joint ventures etc. of the reporting NBFCs / HFCs.

Ans. In addition to dispensing cash, ATMs / WLAs may offer many other services / facilities to customers. Some of such services include:

• Account Information

• Cash Deposit

• Regular Bill Payment

• Purchase of Re-load Vouchers for Mobiles (not permitted at WLAs)

• Mini / Short Statement Generation

• PIN Change

• Request for Cheque Book

Answer: This is essentially a bank-to-bank arrangement similar to correspondent banking arrangement.

A sub-target of 7.5% of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) or Credit Equivalent of Off-Balance Sheet Exposure (CEOBE), whichever is higher, towards lending to the Micro-enterprises under overall Priority Sector Lending has been prescribed for Domestic commercial banks, Foreign banks with 20 branches and above, Regional Rural Banks and Small Finance Banks.

Response: The minimum deposit at any one time is 10 grams of raw gold (bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals) and there is no maximum limit for deposit under the scheme. The quantity of gold deposited will be expressed up to three decimals of a gram.

No. The 'Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account' should be considered as a normal banking service available to all customers, through branches.

Ans: The treatment in clause 36 is only to facilitate transfer of loans where due to operational or other constraints, the transferee does not conduct a loan level due diligence. This is without prejudice to the requirement under Clause 46 to apply prudential norms at the individual loan level.

Ans. The RTGS system is primarily meant for large value transactions. The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is ₹ 2,00,000/- with no upper or maximum ceiling.

Ans. The list of PPI issuers is available on the RBI website at the links https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=2491 (bank-PPI issuers) and https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=12043 (non-bank PPI issuers).

• Final monthly WPI will be used as reference WPI for 1st day of the calendar month. The reference WPI for intermittent days, i.e. dates between 1st days of the two consecutive months will be computed through interpolation.

• For interpolation, two months final WPI should be available throughout the month. As final WPI is available with a lag of about two and half months (e.g. final WPI February 2013 will be released in mid-May 2013), two months final WPI could be available only with a lag of four months.

• In view of above, the four months lag has been chosen for final WPI to be considered as reference WPI for 1st day of the calendar month. For example, December 2012 final WPI will be taken as reference WPI for 1st of May 2013 and January 2013 final WPI will be taken as reference WPI for 1st of June 2013.

Yes. The applicant will immediately receive a mail conveying details of the original office / department where the application was submitted and the details of the office / department / section to which it has been transferred. The information can also be ascertained through ATS by the applicant under ’My Application’. The entire history will be shown.

Ans : No.  As per Section 3 of the Factoring Act 2011, no Factor can commence or carry on the factoring business without a) obtaining a CoR from the Reserve Bank, b) fulfilling the principal business criteria.