While neither the government nor institutions have complete idea of fraudulent schemes, RBI teams will study why villagers in Tamil Nadu are attracted towards them, said Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao here on Thursday. Subbarao chaired a special State-level meeting Bankers’ Committee meeting, attended by senior officials of the state government, banks and Reserve Bank, in the city.
Addressing a press conference at the end of the meeting, Subbarao said the issue of fraudulent money collection schemes figured in the discussions.
While the primary responsibility to check such schemes lay with the State because of their reach for surveillance, the Reserve Bank, as a policy measure, had undertaken measures to create awareness about the schemes.
In Tamil Nadu, the RBI would conduct an exploratory study in one district in consultation with the State government on why people became attracted towards fraudulent schemes and the modus operandi of the operators. “We will have 11 teams comprising junior RBI officers and each team will cover two or three villages,” Subbarao said. The RBI Governor also stressed the need to sensitise police officials on the issue and the need for track disposal of seized assets of the fraudsters to repay the public deposits.
Stating that the Reserve Bank Staff College in the city would draw up a training capsule, especially for senior police officials, he exhorted the State government to help the Central bank in ramping up publicity about such fraudulent schemes. “The public can complain to any regulator and all regulators will coordinate resolution of complaints among themselves,” he said.
Subbarao said that the RBI would also associate itself with the State’s move to initiate a study of banks granting loans of less than Rs 10 lakh without collateral to the MSME sector in four more districts. “Last year, in response to a complaint by the State government that the banks were insisting on collateral, we conducted a study in four districts in Tamil Nadu,” he pointed out. “We found that around 70 per cent of loans under the category were granted without collateral.”
Subbarao said, it was decided at the meeting asked banks to speed up opening of accounts in remote areas of the State.
It was also decided that the government would identify 10 districts where business correspondents could be trained, in actual banking activities to enable them to increase business.