Indian Banks’ Association requests RBI to exempt govt accounts from current accounts circular

Emails despatched to the IBA and the RBI remained unanswered until the time of going to press.

The Indian Banks’ Affiliation (IBA) has requested the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) to exempt accounts held by the federal government with varied banks from the purview of the August 6, 2020, present accounts round. The request has been made on the idea of suggestions acquired from IBA’s member banks, a banker conscious of the event instructed FE.

If the central financial institution accedes to this request, a financial institution won’t have to shut present accounts held with it by the federal government even when the financial institution’s publicity to the federal government is lower than 10% of the latter’s complete borrowings. The deadline for complying with the round, geared toward stopping frauds, has been prolonged to October 31 from July 31, 2021.

“The aim of the round is to stop siphoning off funds given by banks. Within the case of the federal government, that may hardly be thought of a threat. That’s the reason we have now requested for an exemption,” the banker mentioned.

Emails despatched to the IBA and the RBI remained unanswered until the time of going to press.

In accordance with individuals within the trade, the federal government was sad with the thought of getting to shut down a few of its present accounts, which had been in violation of the phrases of the August 6 round. Some banks even confronted the specter of being blacklisted by the federal government. With the intention to resolve this battle between the regulatory mandate and the federal government’s needs, banks have sought authorities accounts to be excluded from the ambit of the round, altogether.

Whereas points like this proceed to hamper the implementation of the round, bankers are taking solace from the RBI assertion that points which banks are unable to resolve themselves shall be escalated to the IBA for acceptable steerage. “Residual points, if any, requiring regulatory consideration shall be flagged by IBA to the Reserve Financial institution for examination by September 30, 2021,” the RBI had mentioned on August 4 whereas extending the timeline for implementing the round.

Within the meantime, the round continues to face a authorized problem within the Kerala Excessive Courtroom. Muthoot Fincorp and GEO VPL Finance have moved writ petitions towards the round. In its final listening to within the matter of August 12, the courtroom took word of the RBI’s submission, which was much like its August 4 clarification. The subsequent listening to within the matter is scheduled for October 12.