July 27, 2023

Reserve Bank of India clarifies on Star Series Banknotes

It has come to the notice of the Reserve Bank that the validity of banknotes with a Star (*) symbol present on the number panel has recently been the subject of discussions on some social media platforms.

In this connection, it is informed that the Star (*) symbol is inserted in the number panel of a banknote that is used as replacement for defectively printed banknotes in a packet of 100 pieces of serially numbered banknotes. A banknote with a Star (*) symbol is identical to any other legal banknote, except that in the number panel a Star (*) symbol is added between the prefix and the serial number. The Star (*) symbol is an identifier that it is a replaced / reprinted banknote. Information about the “Star Series” banknotes is available on the RBI website as part of FAQs on Indian Currency (Question 9 of Section B).

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2023-2024/653

June 17, 2023

Clarification on Banknote

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come across reports circulating in certain sections of the media alleging missing of banknotes printed by banknote printing presses. The RBI emphasizes that these reports are not correct.

These reports are based on erroneous interpretation of information collected under the Right to Information Act, 2005 from the printing presses. It may be noted that all banknotes supplied from printing presses to RBI are properly accounted for. It is further informed that there are robust systems in place for reconciliation of banknotes printed at the presses and supplied to RBI which include protocols to monitor production, storage and distribution of banknotes.

Members of the public are, therefore, requested to rely on the information published by RBI from time to time in such matters.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2023-2024/428

August 19, 2022

RBI Clarification

This is regarding reports in certain sections of the media stating that the RBI is against privatisation of Public Sector Banks (PSBs). These media reports have cited an article titled “Privatisation of Public Sector Banks: An Alternate Perspective” published in the August 2022 issue of RBI Bulletin. The article is authored by researchers of RBI.

2. In this regard, it is clarified that:

i) As clearly stated in the article itself, the views expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Reserve Bank of India.

ii) The Press Release relating to the August 2022 Bulletin highlights that “the gradual approach to privatisation adopted by the government can ensure that a void is not created in fulfilling the social objective of financial inclusion”.

iii) The concluding paragraph of the article, inter-alia, mentions that:

- “From the conventional perspective that privatisation is a panacea for all ills, the economic thinking has come a long way to acknowledge that a more nuanced approach is required while pursuing it”;

- “Recent mega merger of PSBs has resulted in consolidation of the sector, creating stronger and more robust and competitive banks”;

- “A big bang approach of privatisation of these banks may do more harm than good. The government has already announced its intention to privatize two banks. Such a gradual approach would ensure that large scale privatisation does not create a void in fulfilling important social objectives of financial inclusion and monetary transmission.”

Thus, the researchers are of the view that instead of a big bang approach, a gradual approach as announced by the Government would result in better outcomes.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2022-2023/732

June 06, 2022

RBI clarifies: No change in existing Currency and Banknotes

There are reports in certain sections of the media that the Reserve Bank of India is considering changes to the existing currency and banknotes by replacing the face of Mahatma Gandhi with that of others. It may be noted that there is no such proposal in the Reserve Bank.

(Yogesh Dayal)      
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2022-2023/314

October 01, 2019

RBI clarifies on the safety and stability of the Indian banking system

There are rumours in some locations about certain banks including cooperative banks, resulting in anxiety among the depositors.

RBI would like to assure the general public that Indian banking system is safe and stable and there is no need to panic on the basis of such rumours.

(Yogesh Dayal)    
Chief General Manager

Press Release : 2019-2020/850

May 03, 2019

RBI clarifies on safe custody of its gold reserves

We have come across reports in certain sections of the print and social media regarding RBI shifting abroad a part of its gold holding in 2014. It is a normal practice for Central Banks world over, to keep their gold reserves overseas with Central Banks of other countries like Bank of England for safe custody. It is further stated that no gold was shifted by the RBI from India to other countries in 2014 or thereafter. Thus the media reports cited above are factually incorrect.

Yogesh Dayal
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2018-2019/2600

April 20, 2019

RBI clarification on 5 day week in commercial banks

It has been reported in certain sections of the media that commercial banks would have a 5 day week in terms of RBI instructions. It is clarified that this information is not factually correct. RBI has not issued any such directions.

Yogesh Dayal
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2018-2019/2488

April 06, 2019

Announcement of Merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank and Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has learnt through media reports that Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited (IBHFL) have made a merger announcement on April 5, 2019 with approval of their respective Boards. It has been reported in a section of the media that the presence of two nominee directors of the RBI on the Board of LVB implies RBI’s indirect approval of the proposal.

It is clarified that the merger announcement does not have any approval of RBI at this stage. It is also clarified that presence of Additional Directors nominated by the RBI on the Board of LVB does not imply any approval of the RBI of the merger proposal. Moreover, the Additional Directors have clearly mentioned at the meeting that they have no view on the proposal.

The proposals, as and when received from these entities, will be examined in RBI as per extant regulatory guidelines/directions.

Yogesh Dayal
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2018-2019/2390

January 20, 2018

RBI clarifies that official apprehended by CISF not an RBI employee

It has been reported in a section of the media that an RBI officer has been apprehended by CISF, stealing printed currency at the RBI printing facility at Dewas. It is clarified that the Bank Note Press (BNP), Dewas is a unit of Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd. which is not under the control of the Reserve Bank of India. Further, RBI does not have any official placed with BNP, Dewas. The reports, thus, are not based on facts.

RBI regrets to note that the facts were not verified before publishing the news reports.

Jose J. Kattoor
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2017-2018/1991

August 8, 2017

‘House Price Index’ (HPI) and ‘Residential Property Price Index’ (RPPI) : Clarification

With reference to the comments on the ‘House Price Index’ (HPI) and ‘Residential Property Price Index’ (RPPI), compiled by the RBI in the news article on ‘Does a renovated NHB Residex help the homebuyers?’ published in Mumbai edition of Mint on July 19, 2017, the following are clarified:

1. HPI is compiled by RBI using the property registration data and is published quarterly with a lag of about one quarter which will also probably be the case with NHB’s RESDIEX. The latest HPI for March 2017 was published on Jul 17, 2017. Thus, the assertion in the news article that there is a huge lag in publishing of the HPI data is not correct.

2. RBI compiles RPPI using the assessed price of houses/flats etc., by selected banks and housing finance companies while sanctioning housing loans. A one-time article titled ‘Recent Trends in Residential Property Prices in India: An exploration using housing loan data’ was published on RBI website in May 2015, based on data for the period Q1: 2010-11 to Q3:14-15, to invite public comments on the methodology and usefulness of the data. (https://rbi.org.in/scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=16223). Subsequently, it was decided to use this data for internal purposes by RBI.

Jose J. Kattoor
Chief General Manager
Department of Communication
Reserve Bank of India
Central Office
Shahid Bhagat Singh Road
Mumbai 400 001
India

February 9, 2016

Bank Write-offs: Clarification

We refer to the article published in today’s (February 9, 2016)  Indian Express under the headline ‘₹ 1.14 lakh crore of bad debts: The great government bank write-off’.

Though based on our response to an RTI query, the news item lacks right perspective and does not bring out all the facts involved in such writing off of loans.

‘Writing off’ of non-performing assets is a regular exercise conducted by banks to clean up their balance sheets. Substantial portion of this write-off is, however, technical in nature. It is primarily intended at cleansing the balance sheet and achieving taxation efficiency. In ‘Technically Written Off’ accounts, loans are written off from the books at the Head Office, without foregoing the right to recovery. Further, write offs are generally carried out against accumulated provisions made for such loans. Once recovered, the provisions made for those loans flow back into the profit and loss account of banks. 

The data published in the above news item is the total write-off made by banks, which includes a large portion of technically written off accounts where the recovery efforts continue as usual.

Alpana Killawala
Principal Adviser
Department of Communication
Reserve Bank of India
Central Office
Shahid Bhagat Singh Road
Mumbai 400 001
India

March 13, 2015

All Decisions taken by A Committee: RBI

Referring to a mischievous and fabricated report published by Reuters – a news wire agency today, the Reserve Bank of India in a statement said that “There is no basis to the report.” “In fact, the agency does not have any inkling of how decisions are made in the central bank,” it added and explained that  “All the monetary policy decisions are made after due and in depth analysis of all incoming information and data and consideration of all aspects of the issues involved. The decisions are then taken unanimously by the Governor in close and continuous consultation with the Deputy Governor and the Executive Director in charge of Monetary Policy."

Alpana Killawala
Principal Chief General Manager
Department of Communication
Reserve Bank of India
Central Office
Shahid Bhagat Singh Road
Mumbai 400 001
India

August 27, 2013

In Response to The Times of India Article:
"Millions of notes not printed in mints reaching RBI vaults"

The Times of India on August 4, 2013, carried a news item "Millions of notes not printed in mints reaching RBI vaults". The news report was based on information elicited through the Right to Information Act from Currency Note Printing Presses and the Reserve Bank of India on the notes printed and the notes received/supplied from the Presses, respectively, from 1999-2000 to 2010-11.

There are several discrepancies in the data published with the article that have resulted in incorrect conclusions by the reporter.

The newspaper has arrived at the conclusion that notes not printed in mints are reaching RBI based on the data given in Table I which was published along side the article.

In this table,

1. In column 4, supply figures of Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL) – one of the printing presses - have wrongly been shown as production figures.

2. The figure in column 6 (notes supplied to RBI) showing 598 million pieces of ` 1000 notes in 2006-07 is incorrect. The correct figure is 589 million pieces (RBI Annual Report 2006-07).

3. For the year 2010-11, the report has used the Reserve Bank and BRBNMPL figures for 12 months (April- March) whereas Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL) figures are for nine months (April –December).

4. Changes in the floating stock held at the Presses.

Also, a point to note is that like in any other production process, in printing of currency notes also, there is both, stock and flow of banknotes produced; and like in any other production line, in banknote printing process too there are some quantities of banknotes that flow across the years.

When all these factors are considered, the alleged differences get reconciled.

While regretting the error on its part in its edition of August 6, 2013, The Times of India raised another question on the integrity of BRBNMPL's data to the RTI applicant, pointing out discrepancies between the numbers provided in response to two similar queries as shown in Table II below:

However, the question on BRBNMPL’s data integrity raised on the basis of Table II is also incorrect. According to BRBNMPL:

1. The details of data indicated in the table pertaining to the two dates were against two different queries.

2. The reply provided in November 2011 was for the query “Give details of ` 1000 and ` 500 printed in each year from the date of printing of ` 1000 and ` 500 started.” Accordingly, BRBNMPL provided data pertaining to notes printed in their presses.

3. The reply provided in December 2011 was for the query, “How many Indian Currency notes have printed by BRBNMPL as per the order of Reserve Bank of India from the year 1947 to December 2010.” Accordingly, BRBNMPL provided data pertaining to notes supplied to RBI as per the Reserve Bank’s indent.

Alpana Killawala
Principal Chief General Manager
Department of Communication
Reserve Bank of India
Central Office
Shahid Bhagat Singh Road
Mumbai 400 001
India