The banking community has welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) move to revise bulk deposit limits, saying it will help banks towards mobilization of granular retail deposits. AU Small Finance Bank’s Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sanjay Agarwal stated on June 7, “Upward revision in bulk deposit threshold from Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore and above is a welcome and pragmatic step and will provide more room to banks for mobilization of granular retail deposits,”
The RBI’s push towards more digital measures would help the banking sector. “RBI’s decision on e-mandates for recurring payments to be extended to FasTags, introduction of auto replenishment of UPI-like wallet, and establishment of a digital payments intelligence platform, is all set to promote a resilient banking sector,” highlights AK Srivastava, MD and CEO, Indian Overseas Bank
With respect to the policy statement, Shaktikanta Das, Governor of RBI said that the central bank plans to develop a robust digital payments platform. He stated, “It is proposed to establish a Digital Payments Intelligence Platform for network level intelligence and real-time data sharing across the digital payments’ ecosystem.” Furthermore, to examine various aspects of setting up the platform, the central bank has also formed a committee.
By introducing an auto-replenishment facility for loading mobile payment wallets if the balance goes below thresholds set by the users, it also proposed to bring in UPI Lite within the confinement of the e-mandate framework. To take an instance, the wallet will automatically be loaded with Rs 2,000, the maximum limit for UPI Lite wallet if there is a user who has set a floor of INR 500 on her UPI Lite wallet and the balance goes below INR 500. The RBI also changed the limit of bulk deposits for scheduled commercial banks and small finance banks (SFB) to Rs 3 crore.
Das furthermore stated, “On a review of bulk deposit limits for banks, it is proposed to revise the definition of bulk deposits as single-rupee term deposit of Rs 3 crore and above for scheduled commercial banks and SFBs, excluding regional rural banks. The pattern of world crisis continues, but India is seeing positive growth. But we need to stay vigilant against new challenges."
