Ans. Cash withdrawal or funds transfer from these two types of Small PPIs is not permitted.

Ans: The funds availed under TLTRO 2.0 are to be deployed in investment grade bonds, commercial paper (CPs) and non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and MFIs in the manner outlined in the press release dated April 17, 2020.

FAQs pertaining to On Tap TLTRO/ reversal of TLTRO/ TLTRO 2.0 transactions

Ans. Yes. The KYC process adopted by the TReDS entities shall adhere to the “Master Direction – Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016” dated February 25, 2016 (as amended from time to time) issued by RBI.

Response: Suppose the principal amount is, say 302.86 grams of gold, and the customer has to be paid in gold, a bank can repay 302 grams in gold and 0.86 grams in equivalent amount of INR. It may be noted that the interest on deposit shall be calculated in INR on the value of gold at the time of deposit.

Before a loan account of a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise turns into a Non-Performing Asset (NPA), banks or creditors should identify incipient stress in the account by creating three sub-categories under the Special Mention Account (SMA) category as given in the Table below:

RBI has recommended the following steps to banks for reducing the timeframe for collection of USD cheques -

• Review the collection policy on an on-going basis so as to explore faster methods of realisation.

• Reduce the transit period for movement of cheques from the collecting branches to the centralised pooling branch and from the centralised pooling branch to CBs.

• Explore feasibility of forming / pooling cheques of various collecting banks to a common service bureau to avail benefits arising out of increased volumes, reduced infrastructure costs, etc.

• Explore the possibility of leveraging on Check-21 facility.

• Use of efficient and reliable courier / postal service.

Ans: No. NEFT is a credit-push system i.e., transactions can be originated by the payer / remitter / sender only to pay / transfer / remit funds to beneficiary.

An AD Category – I Bank / AD Category - II/ FFMC should apply to the respective Regional Office of the Reserve Bank, in Form RMC-F (as given in Part I: Annex-II of the FED Master Direction No.18/2015-16 on Reporting under FEMA 1999) for appointment of franchisees under this Scheme. The application should be accompanied by a declaration that while selecting the franchisees, adequate due diligence has been carried out and that such entities have undertaken to comply with all the provisions of the franchising agreement and prevailing Reserve Bank regulations regarding money changing. Approval would be granted by the Reserve Bank for the first franchisee arrangement. Thereafter, as and when new franchisee agreements are entered into, these would have to be reported to the Reserve Bank in Form RMC-F on a post-facto basis along with similar declaration as indicated above.

Ans : Yes. The maximum exposure that an IDF-NBFC can take on individual projects will be

1. at 50 percent of its total Capital Funds (Tier I plus Tier II) and not to Owned Funds as in the case of NBFCs.

2. An additional exposure up to 10 percent could be taken at the discretion of the Board of the IDF-NBFC.

3. In addition, if the financial position of the IDF-NBFC is satisfactory RBI may, on being satisfied and upon receipt of an application from an IDF-NBFC, permit additional exposure up to 15 percent (over 60 percent) subject to such conditions as it may deem fit to impose regarding additional prudential safeguards.

• IIBs would be a G-Sec and therefore, would be eligible for short-sale and repo transactions.

Ans. Residents may book their tickets in India for their visit to any third country. For instance, residents can book their tickets for travel from London to New York, through domestic/foreign airlines in India. However, the same (air tickets) would be a part of the traveller’s overall LRS entitlement of USD 250,000.

• Yes, joint holding will be allowed.

Ans. Yes

Ans. The customer should keep in mind, among others, the following:

a) There is no requirement of keeping any deposit/ margin/ collateral/ primary security with the lender at any stage of the microfinance loan.

b) Lender is required to provide a loan card to the borrower in a language understood by the borrower which should have following information:

• Information which adequately identifies the borrower;

• Simplified factsheet on pricing;

• All other terms and conditions attached to the loan;

• Acknowledgements by the lender of all repayments including instalments received and the final discharge; and

• Details of the grievance redress system, including the name and contact number of the nodal officer of the lender.

c) Purchase of any non-credit products is purely voluntary. Fee structure for such products shall be explicitly communicated in the loan card.

d) Training provided by the lenders is free of cost.

Answer: The balance in Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) can be repatriated in freely convertible currency and/or currency of the beneficiary trading partner country depending on underlying transaction i.e. for which the account was credited. For example, for import payments through SRVA like any Rupee Vostro account the fund can be remitted to overseas exporter either in freely convertible currency or in domestic currency of the overseas exporter.

Response

Yes. However, the decision to allow services beyond the minimum prescribed has been left to the discretion of the banks who can either offer additional services free of charge or evolve requirements including pricing structure for additional value-added services on a reasonable and transparent basis to be applied in a non-discriminatory manner with prior intimation to the customers. Banks are required to put in place a reasonable pricing structure for value added services or prescribe minimum balance requirements which should be displayed prominently and also informed to the customers at the time of account opening. Offering such additional facilities should be non - discretionary, non-discriminatory and transparent to all ‘Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account’ customers. However such accounts enjoying additional facilities will not be treated as BSBDAs.

Ans : Yes, the banking system too benefits from ECS Credit Scheme such as –

• Freedom from paper handling and the resultant disadvantages of handling, presenting and monitoring paper instruments presented in clearing. Ease of processing and return for the destination bank branches.

• Smooth process of reconciliation for the sponsor banks.

• Cost effective.

The allotment to the non-competitive segment will be at the weighted average rate that will emerge in the auction on the basis of competitive bidding. (Please see answers to Q14 & Q17 ).

Ans. On realization of the sum for which contravention is compounded, a certificate shall be issued by the Reserve Bank, indicating that, the applicant has complied with the order passed by the Compounding Authority.

होय. कृपया वरील चौकशीचा प्रतिसाद पहा ( चौकशी क्र.13).
तथापि, बँकेने जर काही अतिरिक्त चार्जेस लादले नाहीत आणि किमान शिल्लकी शिवाय बीडीबीडीए खात्यांमध्ये निर्दिष्ट केल्यापेक्षा अधिक सुविधा विनाशुल्क दिल्या असतील तर अशा खात्यांचे वर्गीकरण बीएसबीडीए म्हणून केले जाऊ शकते.

Ans. A Small PPI (with cash loading facility) can be held for a maximum period of 24 months only. The 24 months shall be counted from the day of opening such a PPI. Within this period of 24 months, it has to be converted into a full-KYC PPI failing which, no further credit in such PPI shall be allowed. However, the PPI holder shall be allowed to use the available balance.

Response: No.

Response

Yes. Please refer to response to the above query (Query No.14). However, if the bank does not levy any additional charges and offers more facilities free than those prescribed under BDBDA a/cs without minimum balance then such accounts can be classified as BSBDA.

Ans : For the purpose of computing capital adequacy of the IDF-NBFC,

1. bonds covering PPP and post commercial operations date (COD) projects in existence over a year of commercial operation shall be assigned a risk weight of 50 percent.

2. All other assets shall be risk weighted as per the extant regulations as given in para 16 of the Non-Banking Financial (Non-Deposit Accepting or Holding) Companies Prudential Norms (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2007.

• IIBs would be a G-Sec and issued as part of the approved Government market borrowing programme.

• Therefore, IIBs would automatically get SLR status.

The salient features of the Framework are as under:

(i) Before a loan account of an MSME turns into a Non-Performing Asset (NPA), banks or creditors should identify incipient stress in the account by creating three sub-categories under the Special Mention Account (SMA) category as given in the Framework.

(ii) Any MSME borrower may also voluntarily initiate proceedings under this Framework.

(iii) Committee approach to be adopted for deciding corrective action plan.

(iv) Time lines have been fixed for taking various decisions under the Framework.

Ans: The remitter and the beneficiary can track status of NEFT transaction by contacting NEFT Customer Facilitation Centre (CFC) of their bank, respectively. Details of NEFT CFCs of banks are available on the websites of the respective banks. The details of CFC of member banks are also available on the website of RBI at /en/web/rbi/-/customer-facilitation-centres-neft-updated-as-on-june-16-2023-2070-1.

For the purpose of faster tracking of transaction, you may need to provide few details related to transaction such as Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) number / transaction reference number, date of transaction, sender IFSC, amount, beneficiary name, beneficiary IFSC, etc., to your bank.

Ans. Where the medical expenses in respect of NRI close relative [‘relative’ as defined in Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) are paid by a resident individual, such a payment being in the nature of a resident to resident transaction may be covered under the term “services related thereto” under Regulation 6(2) of Notification No. FEMA 14(R)/2016-RB dated May 2, 2016.

There are two types of GAH users (i) Transactional Users - users who can do order management- place/modify/cancel/hold/release and trade. (ii) View Users- who can only view orders/traded placed by various transactional users under the same GAH.

• The minimum investment limit is Rs. 5,000/- (five thousand).

• The maximum limit is Rs. 10 lakh per annum for eligible individual investors and Rs. 25 lakh per annum for institutions such as HUFs, Charitable Trusts, Education Endowments and similar institutions which are not pro-profit in nature.

Ans. A settlement file provides information as to how much amount has to be debited from and credited to the accounts of participants (sellers, buyers and financiers), due on a particular date / time. In other words, it indicates how much a financier has to pay to an MSME seller, and how much a buyer owes to the financier on a particular date / time. The TReDS entities generate the settlement file and send the same to existing payment systems (for instance, National Automated Clearing House) for actual payment of funds.

Ans. An indicative checklist of documents is given below:

a) Covering Letter for Membership to CPS, including:

1. Part-A: General Information

2. Part-B: Financial and Risk Management Aspects

b) For Current Account:

1. Application Form for Opening Current Account with RBI Regional Office (Annex-I of Master Directions on Access Criteria for Payment Systems)

2. Original Certificate of Incorporation / Registration

3. Original Certificate of Commencement of Business

4. An Up-to-date Copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association / Byelaws Duly Authenticated by the Chairman of the Board

5. True Copy of a Resolution (as per specimen on the reverse) of the Board of Directors Authorising the Opening of the Account Together with Specimen of the Signatures of the Authorised Signatories Duly Attested by the Chairman

6. List of Officials Authorised to Operate Account

c) For INFINET Membership:

1. Application Form for INFINET Membership (Annex-IV of Master Directions on Access Criteria for Payment Systems)

2. Undertaking to be Given by the Applicant on Letter Head of the Entity

3. Copy of Board Resolution to Obtain INFINET Membership

4. Details of Existing IT Infrastructure

d) For RTGS Membership:

1. Application Form for RTGS Membership (Annex-V of Master Directions on Access Criteria for Payment Systems)

2. Certified Copy of the Advice of INFINET Membership

3. Undertaking in the Prescribed Form (Stamp Paper)

4. Power of Attorney, in Original, in the Prescribed Form (Stamp Paper)

5. Certified True Copy of the Resolution of the Board of Directors Authorising to Apply for the Membership of the RTGS System

6. Standing Instructions for Start of the Day Fund Transfer

e) For NEFT Membership:

1. Application Form for NEFT Membership (Annex-VI of Master Directions on Access Criteria for Payment Systems)

2. Certified True Copy of RTGS Membership Certificate

Ans. No

Answer: Yes, the income from INR balance can be repatriated subject to applicable regulatory guidelines and tax provisions.

A franchiser, i.e. AD Category–I Bank/ AD Category–II / FFMC should undertake the following minimum checks while conducting due diligence of its franchisees:

1. existing business activities of the franchisee/ its position in the area

2. minimum Net Owned Funds of the franchisee

3. Shops & Establishments / other applicable municipal certification in favour of the franchisee

4. verification of physical existence of location of the franchisee, where restricted money changing activities will be conducted

5. conduct certificate of the franchisee from the local police authorities (certified copy of Memorandum and Articles of Association and Certificate of Incorporation in respect of incorporated entities)
   
   Note: Obtaining of Conduct Certificate of the franchisee from the local police authorities is optional for the franchisers. However, the franchisers may take due care to avoid appointing individuals/ entities as franchisees who have cases / proceedings initiated / pending against them by any law enforcing agencies.

6. declaration regarding past criminal case, if any, cases initiated / pending against the franchisee or its directors / partners by any law enforcing agency, if any

7. PAN Card of the franchisee and its directors / partners

8. photographs of the directors / partners and the key persons of franchisee

The above checks should be done on a regular basis, at least once in a year. The franchiser should obtain from the franchisees proper documentary evidence confirming the location of the franchisees in addition to personal visits to the site. The franchiser should also obtain a Chartered Accountant's certificate confirming the maintenance of minimum Net Owned Funds of the franchisee, i.e., Rs.10 lakh on an ongoing basis.

In case the aggregate amount bid is more than the reserved amount through non-competitive bidding, allotment would be made on a pro rata basis.

Example:

Suppose, the amount reserved for allotment in non-competitive basis is 10 crore. The total amount of bids for non-competitive segment is 12 crore. The partial allotment percentage is =10/12=83.33%. That is, each bank or PD or specified stock exchange who has submitted non-competitive bids received from eligible investors will get 83.33% of the total amount submitted by him. It may be noted that the actual allotment may vary slightly at times from the partial allotment ratio due to rounding off with a view to ensuring that the allotted amounts are in multiples of 10,000/-.

Ans. A customer is required to pay only those charges which are explicitly mentioned in the factsheet provided by the lender. Besides this, the customer should also note the following:

• There is no pre-payment penalty on microfinance loans.

• Penalty, if any, for delayed payment can be applied only on the overdue amount and not on the entire loan amount.

• Any change in interest rate or any other charge shall be informed to the borrower in writing well in advance and these changes shall be effective only prospectively.

For redress of grievance in case of deficiency of service, the complainant / aggrieved customer may first approach the concerned bank. If the bank does not respond within a period of 30 days after lodging of the complaint or if the complainant is not satisfied with the response/resolution given by the bank, the complainant can lodge the complaint under the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 at the Complaint Management System portal of RBI (cms.rbi.org.in).

Ans. In case of non-payment of the amount indicated in the compounding order within 15 days of the order, it will be treated as if the applicant has not made any compounding application to the Reserve Bank and the other provisions of FEMA, 1999 regarding contraventions will apply. Such cases will be referred to the DoE for necessary action.

Ans : No. There is no value limit on the amount of individual transactions.

Ans. No. Default handling is outside the purview of TReDS platforms.

Yes.  The title to Government security can now be recognised not only on the basis of a Succession Certificate issued under Part X of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 but also on the basis of a decree, order or direction passed by a competent court or on the basis of a certificate issued or order passed by any other authority who might have been empowered under any statute to confer on any such person a title to the Government security. Further, the title to Government security of deceased sole or joint holders may also be recognized by the RBI/Agency Banks on the basis of any one of the following six documents as prescribed in the G S Regulations.

1. a “Will” executed by the deceased holder of the Government security bequeathing thereby the security in favour of the person claiming title thereto, provided the probate issued in respect of such Will has been submitted to the Bank by the claimant; or

2. a registered deed of family settlement, wherein the Government security claimed has been included and given to the claimant; or

3. a gift deed executed in accordance with the law relating thereto, in respect of the Government security claimed; or

4. a deed of relinquishment executed by other legal heir or successor of the deceased in accordance with law in favour of the claimant in respect of the Government security claimed; or

5. a decree passed by a foreign court in respect of the Government security claimed, the execution whereof is permissible in accordance with the provisions of Section 44A of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (5 of 1908); or

6. a deed of partition executed and acted upon in accordance with law, wherein the Government security claimed has been included and given to the share allotted to the claimant.

Response: Yes. Rupee loans can be availed against the collateral of Deposit Certificates issued by the banks under GMS.

Response

No. In BSBDA, banks are required to provide free of charge minimum four withdrawals, through ATMs and other mode including RTGS/NEFT/Clearing/Branch cash withdrawal/transfer/internet debits/standing instructions/EMI etc. It is left to the banks to either offer free or charge for additional withdrawal/s. However, in case the banks decide to charge for the additional withdrawal, the pricing structure may be put in place by banks on a reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent manner by banks.

• Settlement cycle of IIBs will be T+1, like fixed rate conventional bonds.

Ans: After crediting the account of the beneficiary, the beneficiary bank shall advise the beneficiary of the funds received. The remitter’s name shall be printed in the Account Statement / Pass Book of the beneficiary.

There is an optional field with tag 7495 in NEFT payment message that enables inclusion of additional sender-to-receiver information. Destination banks should capture and store this information in their CBS / other systems as appropriate, to be provided to the customer on request.

If the beneficiary specified in the sender's payment instruction fails to get payment through the NEFT system for some valid reasons, the originating bank shall provide the description “NEFT-Return” in the pass book / account statement of the originator whose NEFT transaction is returned.

The franchiser, i.e. AD Category–I Bank / AD Category–II / FFMC may appoint franchisees within a distance of 100 kilometres from their controlling branches concerned.

However, this distance criterion is relaxed in case of a recognised group/ chain of hotels appointed as franchisees, provided the headquarters of the group/ chain of hotels falls within a distance of 100 kilometres of the controlling branch of the franchiser concerned.

Further, in case of areas declared as hilly areas (as defined by the respective State Governments/ Union Territories) and the North-Eastern States, the distance restriction given in point (i) above is not applicable.

Ans. In terms of sub-section 4, of Section (6) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, a person resident in India is free to hold, own, transfer or invest in foreign currency, foreign security or any immovable property situated outside India if such currency, security or property was acquired, held or owned by such person when he was resident outside India or inherited from a person who was resident outside India.

Further, a resident individual can also acquire property and other assets overseas under LRS.