The Reserve Bank of India has made it necessary for the banks to mention a clear reason in case a cheque is dishonored or it is returned.
In a statement the Central Bank said "Certain instances of banks not signing the cheque return memos stating that the memos are computer generated and therefore no signature is necessary, have been brought to our notice."
The returned cheque must have a signed slip with a valid reason because of which payment has been denied.
In order to bring the remote areas of the country under branch banking structure the Reserve Bank of Indian has come up with a new approach. The umbrella banking body has asked the lenders to allocate at least 25 percent of the total branches that they plan to open during a year to for unbanked rural areas in the country.
RBI has categorized various parts in the country on the basis of availability of bank branches and the population; Tier 5 and 6 are the centers that lack physical presence of any bank. Banks do not require any prior permission for opening branches in Tier 3 to 6 centers but for Tier 1 and 2, permission from RBI is mandatory.
To capitalize on it and to prompt the bank to open branches in rural areas, RBI has made it necessary for the banks to open at least 25% of the total branches that a banks intends to open during a year in the unbanked parts of the country to get permission to open branches in Tier 1 and 2 centers.
Concerned about the increasing number of frauds due to the forged documents the Reserve Bank of India has send a notification to all the bank CEOs. RBI has said that the forged documents are certified by valuers, advocates and the Chartered Accountants. RBI has advised that when a certification is proved to be wrong, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) must issue a caution list about the issuers of the certificates.
RBI also pointed out that there were instances of frauds even at the branches that were subject to concurrent audit, also in some cases the responsibility of audit was given to inexperienced staff. RBI has asked the concurrent auditors to be more careful.
There have been a few new appointments at the top offices in the Reserve Bank of India. Mr. P. Padmanabham has been appointed as the Executive Director of RBI Mr. Harun Rashid Khan as the Deuty Governor.
Mr. Padmanabhan will look after Department of Information and Technology, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems and Foreign Exchange Department. Before being appointed as the Executive Director he was heading the Department of the payment and settlement systems RBI.
Mr. Khan will be in charge of Central Security Cell, Department of External Investments and Operations, Department of Government and Bank Accounts, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, Foreign Exchange Department, Internal Debt Management Department and Inspection Department.
Reserve Bank of India has revised the guidelines on ATM transactions from other bank ATMs. Up till now a person was allowed to make 5 free transactions from other bank ATM that included only financial transaction, there was no limit on the non-financial transactions like balance enquiry, PIN change or on mini statements.
After the enforcement of new guidelines the number of free transactions will remain the same at 5 but the now they will constitute both financial as well as non-financial transactions. Also, the facility of free transactions id applicable only for the saving account holders.
Apart from that for some relief to the customers the Central Bank has slashed sown the time duration to settle complaints regarding the wrongly debited amount from customer’s account from 12 working days to 7 and if the bank delays the to credit the amount then the customer is entitled to get a compensation of Rs. 100 per day delayed but the customer must make sure to lodge a complaint within 30 days of the transactions.
