Banks hail RBI's status quo policy

Dinesh Khara, the chairman of the SBI said the policy clearly shows the ability of the RBI to remain steadfast and focused on pitching key growth deliverables

Lenders have welcomed the status quo policy as on expected lines and pointed out that the other regulatory measures announced by the Reserve Bank will serve customer interest better and improve the overall market depth.

Commenting on the policy, Dinesh Khara, the chairman of the State Bank of India, said the policy clearly shows the ability of the RBI to remain steadfast and focused on pitching key growth deliverables and the same bodes well even as global uncertainties pick up pace outside.

Khara, who just got an extension till August next as the chairman of the nation's largest lender, also lauded the inclusion of the Vishwakarma (helping artisans) scheme in the PIDF (payments infrastructure development fund (PIDF) scheme, saying it will enhance market breadth and depth benefitting small scale artisans.

On the proposed extension of the IRACE (income recognition, asset classification) norms to key infrastructure projects, he said this will rekindle incremental investment appetite, while the strengthening of the ombudsman scheme will further promote the interest of customers.

Announcing the policy, the RBI said it will harmonise the internal ombudsman framework, introduced in 2015, to strengthen the customer grievance mechanism into a single master direction. This will further strengthen the customer grievance redressal system of the regulated entities.

Punjab National Bank MD AK Goel, who is also the Indian Banks Association chairman, said the status quo on the policy was on expected lines.

On the RBI urging banks to use the inter-bank call money market window to park their excess funds and not in the SDF window, he said this can help liquidity deficient banks to borrow through this window thereby helping to further deepen the inter-bank call money market.

On the regulatory front, the proposal to have a comprehensive regulatory framework governing project finance and harmonise the instructions across all regulated entities is expected to introduce more clarity on the framework, he said.

Zarin Daruwala of Standard Chartered Bank said the policy focus clearly shows that the central bank remains vigilant on inflation and is ready to act if required.

The internal ombudsman norms for all regulated entities and higher surveillance required of banks and NBFCs will make the financial system more resilient, she noted.

Suresh Khatanhar, the deputy managing director of IDBI Bank, said the withdrawal of the 10 per cent incremental CRR will help boost consumer spending, especially during the festive season.