85 breached
The Indian rupee has breached the significant psychological barrier of 85 against the US dollar, marking an all-time low amid a confluence of domestic and global pressures.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed monetary penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Federal Bank and of Rs 72 lakh on the Punjab National Bank by an order dated October 30, 2023, the central bank said on Friday.
Federal Bank was penalised as it issued some demand drafts, each for a value of rupees fifty thousand and above, without incorporating the name of the purchaser on the face of it.
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The RBI did scrutiny based on a complaint which revealed non-compliance of the bank with the Reserve Bank of India (Know Your Customer) DIrections, 2016.
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For the Punjab National Bank, the penalty was in context with some SMS charges that the bank levied in certain accounts despite maintaining junk mobile numbers in the Core Banking Solution (CBS).
Also, the bank did not pay interest rates strictly as per the schedule of interest rates disclosed in advance in several term deposit accounts and failed to specify the interest reset date in MCLR-linked loans.
The RBI said that these acts come under non-compliance with provisions of ‘Reserve Bank on India (Interest Rate of Deposits) Directions 2016’, ‘Reserve Bank on India (Interest Rate of Advances) Directions, 2016’ and ‘Master Circular on Customer Services in Banks’.
For the PNB, a Statutory Inspection for Supervisory Evaluation (lSE 2021) of the bank was conducted by RBI with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2021.
The examination of the Risk Assessment Report/Inspection Report pertaining to ISE 2021, and all related correspondence in that regard, revealed the aforesaid observations.
Consequently, a notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for failure to comply with the said directions, as stated therein.
After considering the banks’ reply to the notice, and oral submissions made during the personal hearing, RBI came to the conclusion that the charge of non-compliance with the aforesaid RBI directions was substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty.
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