payment systems are continuously evolving, it is necessary that all the stakeholders including the regulators are continuously engaged in gearing up to provide safe, efficient, robust, accessible and affordable payment services to our citizens. The challenge therefore, is to understand the various issues and the subtle nuances of this ever evolving payments landscape and devise appropriate strategies- in short we should continue to stay ahead of the curve. Have we as an industry been able to achieve this? I have accordingly focused my thoughts on some issues in payment systems which I think need our collective attention.

The title of the current session Banking Sector: Resilience to Risk and Shock is also very topical. Maintaining resilience to risk and shock is an integral part of bank management and also bank regulation and supervision. However, the events of the last few years have underscored like never before the importance of ensuring that the banking sector builds up its ability to handle the headwinds of adverse events with relative equanimity. Over the years, many practices have been exposed in financial institutions that point to the importance of risk management and controls. Efforts have been ongoing, across the globe, to develop a risk management framework to identify where the key risks lie, and set out how they are to be managed. But, mishaps continue to surface, clearly indicating that the development of a fool proof risk management system is still a work in progress and whatever level of sophistication and advancement we reach, shocks are unavoidable.

The government says it will soon notify 100 per cent foreign direct investment in single-brand retail. Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) P K Chaudhery said this in response of a question about issuance of notification of 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail.

This may be an appropriate point to talk about leadership at the Reserve Bank of India. All of you, residents of Kolkata, are possibly aware that RBI was born here, in this historic city of Kolkata, in 1935. The building where RBI took birth 76 years ago, 8 Council House Street, is today a heritage building. Over the last 76 years, the Reserve Bank has played a leadership role in financial sector development in India. Not only has RBI established itself as a knowledge institution engaged in the macroeconomic management of the country, but also many of today’s leading national financial institutions – IDBI, NABARD, UTI, EXIM Bank, DFHI and DICGC – owe their origins to RBI. RBI has steered the financial sector to support real sector growth and development. The schemes it pioneered such as the Lead Bank Scheme and priority sector lending – have been aimed at ensuring that growth and development are equitable and inclusive. That several other countries emulated these programmes is a testimony to their value and resilience. Driven by an abiding belief that financial inclusion is a necessary condition for equality of opportunity, the Reserve Bank has, in recent years, been aggressively promoting financial inclusion.

Risk Management is not about eliminating , or which is the same thing as completely hedging out, risk but about first determining , like one’s pain threshold, risk tolerance threshold and then aligning an entity’s existing risk, be it currency, interest rate or commodity price risk, with its risk tolerance threshold. Having said that, it would also be in order to have a sense of how risk itself is defined and measured. Risk is uncertainty of future outcomes such as cash flows. In finance theory and practice, it is typically measured by annualized standard deviation of a time-series of percentage changes in asset prices. While courting financial risks in pursuit of financial return is the staple and dharma of banking and finance industry, it is not so for industrial and manufacturing businesses ! The staple and dharma of business and industry is courting their normal core business risks in pursuit of delivering a market-competitive return on equity to shareholders.

RPCD.CO.RCB.AML.No.6764/07.02.12/2011-12 Please refer to our circular RPCD.CO.RCB.AML.BC.No.52/07.02.12/2011-12 dated January 4, 2012. We have since received from Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs, UNP Division copies of notes forwarded by the Chairman of UN Security Council’s 1267/1989 Committee (copy enclosed) regarding changes made in the “Al-Qaida Sanctions List”, i.e. list of Individuals and entities linked to Al-Qaida, as detailed below:

A. P. (DIR Series) Circular No.64 RBI today raised the annual limit of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) for companies to USD 750 million under the automatic route, which does not require prior permission from it. Corporates in specified service sectors like hotels, hospitals and software, can raise FCCBs up to USD 200 million subject to the condition that the proceeds would not be used for acquisition of land.

RRBs are required to update the list of individuals/entities as circulated by the Reserve Bank and before opening any new account, it should be ensured that the name/s of the proposed customer does not appear in the list. Further, RRBs should scan all existing accounts to ensure that no account is held by or linked to any of the entities or individuals included in the list.

Please refer to paragraph 2 (b) of Circular DBOD.Leg.No.BC.104/09.07.007/2002-03 dated May 5, 2003 on ‘Guidelines on Fair Practices Code for Lenders’ wherein banks were advised to devise a system of giving acknowledgement for receipt of all loan applications. The banks were also advised vide our circular RPCD.SME & NFS.BC.No.102/06.04.01/2008-09 dated May 4, 2009 to put in place a Central Registration of loan applications and to use of same technology for online submission of loan applications as also for online tracking of loan applications as recommended by the Working Group on Rehabilitation of sick MSME Units (Chairman: Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty).

RPCD.CO.RCB.AML.BC.No 52/07.02.12/20Banks are advised to strictly follow the procedure laid down in the UAPA Order dated August 27, 2009 enclosed to our circular RPCD.CO.RF.AML. BC. No. 34/07.40.00/ 2009-10 dated October 29, 2009 and ensure meticulous compliance to the Order issued by the Government.