Eligible investors cannot participate directly. They have to necessarily come through a Bank or Primary Dealer (PD) for auction.

Ans. Yes, however, BO’s transactions should be restricted to its designated INR account and it should not put any transactions through the agent’s foreign currency account.

Under Section 19 of the Factoring Act, 2011 every Factor is under obligation to file the particulars of every transaction of assignment of receivables in his favour with the Central Registry to be set-up under section 20 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (54 of 2002), within a period of thirty days from the date of such assignment or from the date of establishment of such registry, as the case may be.

A newly licensed FFMC should commence operations within a period of six months from the date of issuance of licence. A copy of the registration under Shops & Establishment Act or any other documentary evidence such as rent receipt, copy of lease agreement, etc. should be submitted to the Reserve Bank before commencement of business.

Ans: Yes, a person who does not have a bank account can remit funds through NEFT to a beneficiary having a bank account, with another NEFT member bank. It can be done by depositing cash at the nearest NEFT enabled branch of any bank, by furnishing additional details such as complete address, telephone number, etc. Such cash remittances will, however, be restricted to a maximum of ₹50,000 per transaction.

Ans. The insurance charges included in the factsheet are only for credit linked insurance product as these charges are linked to the microfinance loan. A borrower would not have incurred these charges if he had not taken the loan. The factsheet should contain information related to only pricing of microfinance loans to keep it uncluttered. Disclosures related to other non-credit products should be provided separately from the factsheet as mentioned under para 7.1.5¹ of the directions. All non-credit products (both financial products such as investment products, insurance products etc. as well as non-financial products such as solar lanterns, sewing machines etc.) should be provided only with the explicit consent of the borrower and REs should ensure that there is no direct or indirect linkage between the loan provided to the borrower and other non-credit products. No non-credit product shall be sold as a pre-condition for the loan product. REs should prominently display² that purchase of any non-credit product by the microfinance borrowers is purely on a voluntary basis. Board-approved Fair Practices Code of the REs, as mentioned under para 7.1.1³ of the directions, should also cover this aspect.

• Investors can invest through the authorised banks and Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL).

• They will fill an application form and submit the same along with other documents and payment to the bank.

• On receipt of money, the bank will register the investor on the RBI’s web-based platform (E-Kuber) and on validation, generate the Certificate of Holding.

Ans : Yes, However, the exposure of sponsor NBFCs / IFCs and non-sponsor NBFCs / IFCs to the equity and debt of the IDFs would be governed by the extant credit concentration norms as given in para 18 of the Non-Banking Financial (Non-Deposit Accepting or Holding) Companies Prudential Norms (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2007.

Yes, exchange of ₹2000 banknotes can be made through BCs upto a limit of ₹4000/- per day for an account holder.

Answer: No

Ans: For transactions up to ₹50,000, the charges are as follows:

1. Originating bank – Maximum ₹5/- per transaction.

2. State Bank of India – ₹20/- per transaction. SBI would share this ₹20/- with NSBL at ₹10 each. NSBL would not charge any additional amount for crediting the beneficiary. if he maintains an account with it.

3. In case the beneficiary does not maintain an account with NSBL then, an additional amount would be charged- ₹50/- for remittances up to ₹5,000/- and ₹75/- for remittance above ₹5,000/-.

4. For transactions above ₹50,000/-, charges prescribed by SBI shall apply.

Positive Pay System (PPS) for CTS is an additional indicator provided by NPCI to all banks to facilitate the clearing process and pre-empt cheque-related frauds and shall form part of prudent practices followed by banks for payment processing. It has been introduced to augment customer safety in cheque payments and reduce instances of fraud occurring on account of tampering of cheque leaves.

Banks have been advised to enable PPS facility for all account holders issuing cheques for amount of ₹ 50,000 and above. While availing of this facility is at the discretion of the account holder, banks may consider making it mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of ₹ 5,00,000 and above.

One may lodge his/ her complaint at the office of the Banking Ombudsman under whose jurisdiction, the bank branch complained against is situated.

For complaints relating to credit cards and other types of services with centralized operations, complaints may be filed before the Banking Ombudsman within whose territorial jurisdiction the billing address of the customer is located. (Click here for address and area of operation of the Banking Ombudsman)

The minimum amount for bidding will be Rs.10,000 (face value) and in multiples in Rs.10,000.

Banks should pay interest at the originally contracted rate on the deposit amount for the holiday/Sunday/Non-business working day intervening between the date of expiry of the specified term of the deposit and the date of payment of the proceeds of the deposits on the succeeding working day.

No. General permission has been given to authorised dealers to allow such collectivised remittances, on a periodic basis.

Travellers are allowed to purchase foreign currency notes/coins only up to US$ 2000. Balance amount can be taken in the form of traveller’s cheque or banker’s draft. Exceptions to this are (a) travellers proceeding to Iraq and Libya can draw foreign exchange in the form of foreign currency notes and coins not exceeding US$ 5000 or its equivalent; (b) travellers proceeding to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russian Federation and other Republics of Commonwealth of Independent States can draw entire foreign exchange released in form of foreign currency notes or coins.

Tripartite Agreement is an agreement between three parties, namely, the Concessionaire (such as the project which is developing the infrastructure), the Project Authority (such as NHAII or a statutory body set up to develop infrastructure) and IDF-NBFC which binds all the parties collectively and provide, for the following :

1. Take-over of a portion of the debt of the Concessionaire availed from Senior Lenders;

2. a default by the Concessionaire, shall trigger the process for termination of the agreement between Project Authority and Concessionaire;

3. the Project Authority shall redeem the bonds issued by the Concessionaire which have been purchased by IDF-NBFC, from out of the termination payment as per the Tripartite Agreement and other Agreements referred to therein (compulsory buyout),

4. the fee payable by IDF-NBFC to the Project Authority as mutually agreed upon between the two.

Stock means a Government security registered in the books of RBI for which a Stock Certificate (SC) is issued or which are held at the credit of the holder in the Subsidiary General Ledger (SGL) account maintained in the books of RBI and transferable by registration in the books of RBI.

Ans : No, The provisions of Non-Banking Financial (Non-deposit Accepting or Holding) Companies Prudential Norms (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2007 or Non-Banking Financial (Deposit Accepting or Holding) Companies Prudential Norms (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2007, as the case may be and as applicable to a loan company shall apply to an NBFC-Factor.