1.Indian Financial System and RBI






 

Economic activities of any country encompass all business, trade, industry and commerce. This is further topped up by international transactions a country has to deal with. Normally it is advocated that free forces of market and economy should be left to play and determine the course and outcome of economic activities. However this approach is not warranted as the stakes are too high and irreversible damage can unleashed.

This is because a country has varied social obligations.


In India, the RBI is the central banking authority constituted under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 ('RBI Act'), and its duties and responsibilities flow from that statute. With the passage of the statute, RBI  came into existence and it commenced its operations as the central bank of the country on 1st April 1935 as a private shareholders' bank with a paid up capital of rupees fifty million.

Regulatory structure in India
The regulation and supervision of the financial system in India is carried out by different regulatory authorities. The Reserve Bank regulates and supervises the major part of the financial system. The supervisory role of the Reserve Bank covers commercial banks, Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs), certain Financial Institutions (FIs) and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). Some of the FIs, in turn, regulate and/or supervise other institutions in the financial sector. Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), State Co-operative Banks
(StCBs) and District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs) are supervised by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) by National Housing Bank (NHB). Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA), Government of India regulates deposit taking activities
of companies, other than NBFCs, registered under the Companies Act, but not those which are under separate statutes. While RBI/NABARD is concerned with the banking function of the co-operatives, the management control rests with the State/Central Governments. The Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS) ofrespective states in case of single state co-operative banks and the Central Registrar of Co-operative Societies (CRCS) in the case of multi-state co-operative banks are joint regulators with the RBI for UCBs and with the NABARD for rural co-operatives. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA)
regulates the insurance sector and the capital market, credit rating agencies, etc., are regulated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).






Evolution of Central Banking in India

Legal Framework vis-à-vis RBI and its functions









Functions:
The Reserve Bank of India is performing various functions related to monetary management, banking operations, foreign exchange, developmental works and research on problems of economy.
The following are some of the major functions normally performed by the Reserve Bank of India:

1. Note Issue:

Being the Central Bank of the country, the RBI is entrusted with the sole authority to issue currency notes after keeping certain minimum reserve consisting of gold reserve worth Rs. 115 crore and foreign exchange worth Rs. 85 crore. This provision was later amended and simplified.

2. Banker to the Government:

The RBI is working as banker of the government and therefore all funds of both Central and State Governments are kept with it. It acts as an agent of the government and manages its public debt. RBI also offering “ways and means advance” to the government for short periods.

3. Banker’s Bank:

The RBI is also working as the banker of other banks working in the country. It regulates the whole banking system of the country, keep certain percentage of their deposits as minimum reserve, works as the lender of the last resort to its scheduled banks and operates clearing houses for all other banks.

4. Credit Control:

The RBI is entrusted with the sole authority to control credit created by the commercial banks by applying both quantitative and qualitative credit control measures like variation in bank rate, open market operation, selective credit controls etc.

5. Custodian of Foreign Exchange Reserves:

The RBI is entrusted with sole authority to determine the exchange rate between rupee and other foreign currencies and also to maintain the reserve of foreign exchange earned by the Government. The RBI also maintains its relation with International Monetary Fund (IMF).

6. Developmental Functions:

The RBI is also working as a development agency by developing various sister organisations like Agricultural Refinance Development Corporation. Industrial Development Bank of India etc. for rendering agricultural credit and industrial credit in the country.
On July 12, 1986, NABARD was established and has taken over the entire responsibility of ARDC. Half of the share capital of NABARD (Rs. 100 crore) has been provided by the Reserve Bank of India. Thus, the Reserve Bank is performing a useful function for controlling and managing the entire banking, monetary and financial system of the country.

Regulatory and Promotional Roles of Reserve Bank of India:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been playing an important role in the economy of the country both in its regulatory and promotional aspects. Since the inception of planning in 1951, the developmental activities are gaining momentum in the country. Accordingly, more and more responsibilities have been entrusted with the RBI both in the regulatory and promotional area. Now-a-days, the RBI has been performing a wide range of regulatory and promotional functions in the country.
The following are some of the regulatory and promotional functions performed by the RBI:

1. Regulating the Volume of Currency:

The RBI is performing the regulatory role in issuing and controlling the entire volume of currency in the country through its Issue Department. While regulating the volume of currency the RBI is giving priority on the demand for currency and the stability of the economy equally.

2. Regulating Credit:

The RBI is also performing the role to control the credit money created by the commercial banks through its qualitative and quantitative methods of credit control and thereby maintains a balance in the money supply of the country.

3. Control over Commercial Banks:

Another regulatory role performed by the RBI is to have control over the functioning of the commercial banks. It also enforces certain prudential norms and rational banking principles to be followed by the commercial banks.

4. Determining the Monetary and Credit Policy:

The RBI has been formulating the monetary and credit policy of the country every year and thereby it controls the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), bank rate, interest rate, credit to priority sectors etc.

5. Mobilizing Savings:

The RBI is playing a vital promotional role to mobilize savings through its member commercial banks and other financial institutions. RBI is also guiding the commercial banks to extend their banking network in the unbanked rural and semi-urban areas and also to develop banking habits among the people. All these have led to the attainment of greater degree of monetization of the economy and has been able to reduce the activities of indigenous bankers and private money­lenders.

6. Institutional Credit to Agriculture:

The RBI has been trying to increase the flow of institutional credit to agriculture from the very beginning. Keeping this objective in mind, the RBI set up ARDC in 1963 for meeting the long term credit requirement of rural areas. Later on in July 1982, the RBI set up NABARD and merged ARDC with it to look after its agricultural credit functions.

7. Specialized Financial Institutions:

The RBI has also been playing an important promotional role for setting specialized financial institutions for meeting the long term credit needs of large and small scale industries and other sectors. Accordingly, the RBI has promoted the development of various financial institutions like, WCI, 1DBI, ICICI, SIDBI, SFCs, Exim Bank etc. which are making a significant contribution to industry and trade of the country.

8. Security to Depositors:

In order to remove the major hindrance to the deposit mobilization arising out of frequent bank failures, the RBI took major initiative to set up the Deposit Insurance Corporation of India in 1962. The most important objective of this corporation is to provide security to the depositors against such failures.

9. Advisory Functions:

The RBI is also providing advisory functions to both the Central and State Governments on both financial matters and also on general economic problems.

10. Policy Support:

The RBI is also providing active policy support to the government through its investigation research on serious economic problems and issues of the country and thereby helps the Government to formulate its economic policies in a most rational manner. Thus, it is observed that the RBI has been playing a dynamic role in the economic development process of the country through its regulatory and promotional framework.



Functions of RBI (governmental perspective):
I Price Stability through Monetary Policy. Monetary Policy refers to the use of monetary instruments under the control of the central bank to influence variables, such as interest rates, money supply and availability of credit, with a view to achieving the objectives of the policy. There are various direct and indirect instruments used for implementing monetary policy briefly described as :

Repo Rate : The (fixed) interest rate at which the Reserve Bank provides overnight liquidity to banks against the collateral of government and other approved securities under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF).
Reverse Repo Rate : The (fixed) interest rate at which the Reserve Bank absorbs liquidity, on an overnight basis, from banks against the collateral of eligible government securities under the LAF.

Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) : The LAF consists of overnight as well as term repo auctions. Progressively, the Reserve Bank has increased the proportion of liquidity injected under variable rate repo auctions across the range of tenors. The aim of term-repo is to help develop the inter-bank term-money
market, which in turn can set market-based benchmarks for pricing of loans and deposits, and hence improve transmission of monetary policy. The RBI also conducts variable interest-rate reverse-repo auctions, as necessitated under market conditions.
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) : A facility under which scheduled commercial banks can borrow additional amount of overnight money from the Reserve Bank by dipping into their Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) portfolio up to a limit at a penal rate of interest. This provides a safety valve against unanticipated liquidity shocks to the banking system.

Bank Rate : It is the rate at which the Reserve Bank is ready to buy or rediscount bills of exchange or other commercial papers. The Bank Rate is published under Section 49 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. This rate has been aligned to the MSF rate and, therefore, changes automatically as and when the MSF rate
changes alongside policy repo rate changes.
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) : The average daily balance that a bank is required to maintain with the Reserve Bank as a share of such per cent of its Net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) that the Reserve Bank may notify from time to time in the Gazette of India.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) : The share of NDTL that a bank is required to maintain in safe and liquid assets, such as, unencumbered government securities, cash and gold. Changes in SLR often influence the availability of resources in the banking system for lending to the private sector.

Open Market Operations (OMOs): These include both, outright purchase and sale of government securities, for injection and absorption of durable liquidity, respectively.

Market Operations The Reserve Bank of India conducts market operations in the money, government
securities and foreign exchange markets. These operations are primarily motivated by the twin objectives of monetary policy implementation and financial stability.

II Financial Stability: A financial system typically comprises of institutions (banks, non-banking financial companies, insurance companies, mutual funds etc.), financial markets (money, Government securities, foreign exchange markets, equity, corporate debt, etc.) and financial market infrastructure ably supported by the legal and institutional framework.


III Agent of Government for developmental programmes
Structure of Commercial Banks:
(i)             Public Sector Banks : SBI, Nationalized Banks and IDBI
(ii)            Private Sector Banks : Domestic and Foreign












The organizational structure of the Reserve Bank of India is as under:

I Central Board of Directors
(iii)           Governor
(iv)          Deputy Governors
(v)           Executive Directors
(vi)          Principle Chief General Manager
(vii)         Chief General Manager
(viii)        General Manager
(ix)          Deputy General Manager
(x)           Assistant General Manager
(xi)          Manager
(xii)         Assistant Manager
(xiii)        Support staff

The Central Board of Directors
The Central Board of Directors is the apex body in the governance structure of the Reserve Bank. There are also four Local Boards for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western areas of the country which take care of local interests. The central government appoints/nominates directors to the Central Board and members to the Local Boards in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act. The composition of the Central Board is enshrined under Section 8(1) of the RBI Act,1934. The Central Board consists of :

n    The Governor, who is the Chair
n    Four Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank
n    Four Directors nominated by the central government, one from each of the four
n    Local Boards as constituted under Section 9 of the Act
n    Ten Directors nominated by the central government and two government ofcials nominated by the central government.

The Central Board is assisted by three committees:
§  the Committee of the Central
§  Board (CCB), the Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) and the Board for
§  Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS).
These committees are chaired by the Governor. In addition, the Central Board has four Sub committees, viz., the Audit and Risk Management Sub-Committee (ARMS); the Human Resource Management Sub-Committee (HRM-SC); the Building Sub-Committee (BSC) and the Information Technology Sub-Committee (IT-SC). These sub-committees are headed by an external director.

Subsidiaries of the RBI

The Reserve Bank has the following fully owned subsidiaries:

Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)
With a view to integrating the functions of deposit insurance and credit guarantee, the Deposit Insurance Corporation and Credit Guarantee Corporation of India were merged and the present Deposit Insurance and
Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) came into existence on July 15, 1978. DICGC, established under the DICGC Act 1961, is one of the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank. The DICGC insures all deposits (such as savings, xed, current, and recurring deposits) with eligible banks excepting a few categories such as Deposits of foreign Governments, Deposits of Central/State Governments, Inter-bank
deposits, etc. Every eligible bank depositor is insured up to a maximum of ` 0.1 million for both principal and interest amount held by him.

National Housing Bank (NHB)
National Housing Bank was set up on July 9, 1988 under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank to act as an apex level institution for housing. NHB has been
established to achieve, among other things, the following objectives:

n  To promote a sound, healthy, viable and cost effective housing nance system to all segments of the population and to integrate the housing nance system with the overall nancial system.
n  To promote a network of dedicated housing nance institutions to adequately serve various regions and different income groups.
n  To augment resources for the sector and channelise them for housing.
n  To make housing credit more affordable.
n  To regulate the activities of housing nance companies based on regulatory and supervisory authority derived under the Act.
n  To encourage augmentation of supply of buildable land and also building materials for housing and to upgrade the housing stock in the country.
n  To encourage public agencies to emerge as facilitators and suppliers of serviced land for housing.

Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL)
The Reserve Bank established BRBNMPL in February 1995 as a whollyowned subsidiary to augment the production of bank notes in India and to enable bridging of the gap between supply and demand for bank notes in the country. The BRBNMPL has been registered as a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act, 1956 with its Registered and Corporate Ofce situated at Bengaluru. The company manages two Presses, one at Mysore in Karnataka and the other at Salboni in West Bengal.
(ReBIT) has been set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to take care of the IT requirements, including the cyber security needs of the Reserve Bank and its regulated entities. ReBIT will focus on IT and cyber security (including related research) of the nancial sector and assist in IT systems audit and assessment
of the RBI regulated entities; advise, implement and manage internal or system wide IT projects (both the existing & the new) of the Reserve Bank as mutually decided between the Reserve Bank and ReBIT. It will also act as a catalyst for innovation, big systems and new ideas apart from having the capability to guide
the regulated entities in the IT areas of their operations as also for the RBI's IT related functions and initiatives. Given the need for inter-operability and cross institutional cooperation, ReBIT will effectively participate in setting up of standards to strengthen Reserve Bank's role as regulator.


National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex Development Bank with a mandate for facilitating credit ow for promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts. It also has the mandate to support
all other allied economic activities in rural areas, promote integrated and sustainable rural development and secure prosperity of rural areas. NABARD came into existence on July 12, 1982, by transferring the agricultural credit functions of RBI and renance functions of the then Agricultural Renance and Development Corporation (ARDC). Set up with an initial capital of ` 1 billion, its' paid up capital stood at ` 50 billion as on 31 March 2016. Consequent to the revision in the composition of share capital between Government of India and RBI, the Government of India holds ` 49.8 billion (99.60%) while Reserve Bank of India holds ` 0.2 billion (0.40%).



Academic Institutions set up by the Reserve Bank
The Reserve Bank has set up autonomous institutions, such as, National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune; Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai; and the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad, to disseminate knowledge
and conduct research in the areas of banking, nance, economics and information technology.









Departments of RBI:
Depart


Monetary Policy
and Research
Monetary Policy Department (MPD)
Department of Economic and Policy Research (DEPR)
Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM)
Financial Markets Operation Department (FMOD)
International Department (ID)
Department of Communication (DoC)

Regulation
and Risk
Management

Department of Banking Regulation (DBR)
Department of Non-Banking Regulation (DNBR)
Department of Co-operative Bank Regulation (DCBR)
Enforcement Department (ED)
Financial Stability Unit (FSU)
Supervision &
Inclusion

Department of Banking Supervision (DBS)
Department of Non-Banking Supervision (DNBS)
Department of Cooperative Bank Supervision (DCBS)
Financial Inclusion and Development Department (FIDD)
Customer Education and Protection Department (CEPD)
Financial
Markets and
Infrastructure

Department of External Investments and Operations (DEIO)
Financial Markets Regulation Department (FMRD)
Internal Debt Management Department (IDMD)
Foreign Exchange Department (FED)
Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS)
Department of Government and Bank Accounts (DGBA)
Operations and
Human
Resources

Department of Currency Management (DCM)
Department of Information Technology (DIT)
Corporate Strategy and Budget Department (CSBD)
Department of Corporate Services (DCS)
Human Resource Development Department (HRMD)
Risk Monitoring Department (RMD)
Inspection Department (ID)
Legal Department (LD)
Secretary's Department
Central Vigilance Cell
Rajbhasha Department
Premises Department (PD)tors


ments of RBI and their functions
245
Governor
Deputy Governors
Executive Directors
Principal Chief General
Managers
Chief General Managers
General Managers
Deputy General Managers
Assistant General Managers
Managers
Assistant Managers
















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