VisVoice

  The woes of an Indian Urban Senior Citizen (Below created characters and conversations are purely imaginary; might or might not reflect reality; Intention is not to hurt anyone, but to generate a debate. If it hurts anyone, my sincere apologies to him/her) After the imaginary interview with me on RBI Policy* in April 2025, the late Mr. Art Buchwald (AB) was restless in the heaven.  He  called me over phone (in my dream) yesterday, to convey that he would like to interview an Indian consumer to confirm the 'rosy' picture of the Indian Economy, as certified by the government, RBI, economic experts,  through their statements and opinions. I agreed to his request. Unfortunately, he bumped into an Indian urban senior citizen(USC), known for his (arm chair) expert views on the stock market, mutual funds and economy, but placed his savings, only with the scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and post office savings schemes.  Excerpts of the (imaginary) interview are as u...

  Repo Rate Review June 25 - m y expectations: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be meeting in Mumbai tomorrow (04.06.25), to review the policy (repo) rate and the monetary policy stance for the next two months. RBI Governor is expected on announce the decisions of MPC on 6th June 2025. My Predictions are: 1. Repo rate may be reduced by another 50 bps. (6.0% to 5.5%)   My reasoning is based out of: a. CPI Inflation is below 4% for the last three months and the level reported for April 25 (3.16%) is 84 bps less than the target rate.  b. Normal monsoon is predicted for the current year and the rainfall across the country so far, augurs well for the farming community. c. The average Crude Oil price (at below USD65 level) is the lowest recorded in the last three years. d. US dollar continues to be weak. The Indian Rupee has recovered substantially against the USD and is in the range bound of Rs.84.5-Rs.85.5, since end of April 2025. e. Fo...

Are branch staff of banks' pressurised…. into sanction of Gold Loans? The above picture depicts the promise of a bank that a gold loan up to Rs.50 lacs will be sanctioned within 5 minutes. It also says that loans will be sanctioned to non customers as well and the loans will be both for personal and business purposes. I captured this in my mobile, to present the position prevailing  in the branches of all the banks, especially in the Southern States. But whether a gold loan can be sanctioned within 5 minutes?   Let us examine. T he draft guidelines of RBI, most of which are already in practice in the commercial banks, stipulates the following:  1.  Whether the gold loan applications are sourced directly or through third parties like BCs (business correspondents), etc. the gold should be accepted in the branches of the lender only; apprising, and valuation should also be done by the staff of the lender only.  2. Where the original receipts of the gold orname...

  If the banks were to be strong and resilient... the governance "practices" have to be sound and robust  The influence, the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) (who quite often appear to forget their responsibilities to the Board as a Managing Director) and the respective managements had on the boards of a few scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) came to the fore, when the hidden gross NPAs, and the unprovided provisions thereon, were brought out in the Asset Quality Review (AQR) conducted by RBI in 2016. The regulator brought out a "discussion paper on governance in commercial banks in India" in 2020. Even after that, non-compliance and flouting of corporate governance guidelines continue to hog the limelight, as evidenced in the episodes of LVB, Yes Bank, PMC Bank, RBL Bank, Paytm Payment Bank, NICB, etc. resulting in take over, change of ownership/ board/ management control and even shut down of operations in one case. The irregularities in VIDEOCON loan sanction/renewa...

  TKV Centenary celebrations on 7th April 2025   The centenary celebrations of Com. (Late) T.K. Velayudhan Nair ,  known to all SBTians by the name ‘TKV’ or ‘ANNAN’ was held in a grand manner across Kerala for the last one year, by the various employees unions, affiliated to AIBEA and welfare associations. Notable among them was 'TKV Foundation, Thiruvananthapuram' started in 1993 by the erstwhile members of State Bank of Travancore Officers’ Association (SBTOA), affiliated to AIBOA.  TKV was the face of the bank employees’ movement in Kerala, with particular reference to State Bank of Travancore, for more than three decades since 1950s (before he breathed his last in 1982). ‘Annan’, Com. Natarajan and Com. Vincent Thomas were fondly referred to as the ‘Trimurthis’ of SBT employees' movement by the ex-SBTians. Together they ensured self respect and job security (Unimaginable in those times) to the then employees of SBT in the period 1960-80. Annan was the torch bear...

  திருமண தினம்: 30ஆம் ஆண்டின் தொடக்கம் மார்ச் 25, 2025. உஷாவும் நானும் திருமணம் புரிந்து 29 ஆண்டுகள் முடிந்து விட்டன. தமிழ் வருடத்தை கணக்கெடுத்தோமானால், யுவ வருடத்தில் (1995-96) கல்யாணம் நடந்ததால், 14 ஏப்ரல் அன்று, 30 தமிழ் வருடங்கள் முடிந்து விட்டன.   எங்களை அறிந்தவர்கள்  அனைவரிடமும்   "முகம் மலர்ந்து,  நட்பு கொள்ளும், உதவி புரியும் உஷா எப்படி ஒரு 'hard nut to crack' (புரிந்துகொள்ளக் கடினமான) விஸ்வநாதனை மணம் புரிந்தாள்", என்றும்  "வைஷ்ணவத்தை தங்கள் வாழ்வுடன் ஐக்கிய படுத்திக் கொண்ட ஒரு குடும்பம் எவ்வாறு சைவ சித்தாந்தத்துடன் இணைந்த ஒரு குடும்பத்தில் சம்பந்தம் வைத்துக் கொண்டது"  என்றும் கேட்க விளைவை, அவர்கள் முகத்தில் கண்டிருக்கிறேன். எனது பதில் (உஷாவின் பதில் கூட) ஒன்றுதான். நெடுநாள் நண்பர்கள் ஆன நாங்கள், இனி இணைந்தே பயணிக்கலாம் என்ற யோசனையை வைத்த போது, இரண்டு வீடுகளிலும் அதனை சந்தோஷமாகவும், மனம் நிறைந்த ஆசிர்வாதங்களுடனும் அங்கீகரித்து நிறைவேற்றி வைத்தார்கள். சில சுவாரஸ்யமான விஷயங்களை பதிவிடலாம் என்று தோன்றியது. அதன் விளைவுதான் இந்த எழுத்துரை....

Gold Loan Draft Directions of RBI Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its ‘draft’ directions for lending against gold as collateral for comments by public. In this regard, I gave a few suggestions in my article in Business Line dated 09.12.2024 (please see box) emphasising that the regulator need to review the existing gold loan guidelines and practices followed by different regulated financial entities (REs). I am happy to share that some of the ‘draft’ directions of RBI, now released are in sync with my suggestions in the above article. (I do not claim that RBI read my article or that the suggestions were given due cognisance by the regulator, as it will be stretching my imagination a bit far).  RBI 'draft' directions that partly reflect my suggestions are 1. Whether the gold loan applications are sourced directly or through third parties like BCs (business correspondents), etc. the gold should be accepted in the branches of the lender only and apprising, valuation should al...