The RBI has imposed penalties totalling Rs 2.91 crore on Axis Bank and HDFC Bank for certain deficiencies in statutory and regulatory compliance. In a statement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said a penalty of Rs 1.91 crore has been imposed on Axis Bank for contravention of certain provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, and non-compliance with certain directions on ‘Interest Rate on Deposits’, ‘Know Your Customer (KYC)’ and ‘Credit Flow to Agriculture-Collateral free agricultural loans’.
A penalty of Rs 1 crore has been imposed on HDFC Bank for non-compliance with certain directions on ‘interest rate on deposits’, ‘recovery agents engaged by banks’ and ‘customer service in banks’.
Regarding Axis Bank, the RBI said a supervisory evaluation of the bank was conducted by RBI with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2023 and a review of activities of its subsidiary company was carried out. A notice was issued.After considering Axis Bank’s reply to the notice, the RBI said charges against the bank were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty. The RBI said the bank had opened certain savings deposit accounts in the name of ineligible entities.
International investors seeing higher returns in India: US Ambassador
India is a country with immense investment opportunities where international investors are seeing higher returns compared to the other parts of the world, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said.
“We see that investment opportunities are growing quickly here (in India). More and more international investors are seeing returns that are above and beyond in other parts of the world,” Garcetti said while addressing an event hosted by the Milken Institute in collaboration with the United States Mission in India. He said as a diplomatic mission, the US is encouraging institutional investors to pay greater attention to India and understand that the country is a complicated place just as the US is. “This (India) isn’t a place to make a quick rupee. If you are here for the long haul, you will be richly rewarded,” Garcetti said. As partners, India and the US need to be more strategic, he stated. “It isn’t just about bottom line returns, but if we are overly dependent on any one country, we will all see economic risk, not just security risk to our people. We have to diversify together and make investments that are catalytic to our people’s economic and physical security,” he said.