No plan for early closure, extension of FCNR(B) scheme: Guv

There is no proposal under consideration to close the foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposit scheme prematurely or to extend it beyond Sept 30, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Wednesday. "There is neither a proposal nor is there a need, given the robust flows, to extend the timeline of the foreign currency non-resident (banks) window as of now," Malhotra told the post-policy press conference here.  

The central bank had in June announced a host of measures to attract foreign capital. Among the measures was a facility to cover the full hedging costs for banks raising fresh three- to five-year foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposits until Sept 30. The swap facility, which came into effect on June 8, will remain open till Oct 16 for deposits mobilised between June 8 and Sept 30.  

As per latest available data, the Reserve Bank of India measures to garner inflows through foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposits had attracted $36.73 billion from June 8 till Friday. The governor is hopeful of more healthy foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposits going ahead. However, he added that the Reserve Bank of India has no target in mind for total inflows through the scheme.  

Asked what the RBI plans to do with the dollar inflows from its schemes, Malhotra said a high-level committee decides this. "We buy or sell our currencies and whatever are our reserves, for that there is a high-level committee, there are members from the government also which participate regularly in those meetings, and we take a call as to how we are going to manage those reserves," he said.               

‘Draft norms on mule accounts submitted to SC’

The RBI has submitted a draft standard operating procedure for dealing with mule accounts, or accounts linked to cyber-enabled fraud, to the Supreme Court, Deputy Governor Swaminathan Janakiraman said on Wednesday. The central bank will fine-tune the norms during the four-week timeframe given to it by the court, he said. The RBI deputy governor remarks came a day after a Supreme Court bench directed the RBI to formulate a standard operating procedure.