Tag: Banks

The crypto ‘contagion’ that helped bring down SVB

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As U.S. banking regulators begin their post-mortem of Silicon Valley Bank, some pundits are pointing the finger at crypto markets, whose own collapse over the past year left the tech-focused lender hopelessly exposed.
The conventional wisdom about crypto is that it’s “self-referential” — a separate universe to conventional finance — and that its inherent volatility can be contained. The emerging “contagion” theory is that there are enough linkages for extreme turmoil to spill over, much as a virus can sometimes jump from one species to another.
That’s what happened here, according to Barney Frank, the former U.S. congressman who wrote sweeping new banking rules after the banking crisis in 2008, and joined the crypto-friendly Signature Bank as a board member in 2015.
“I think, if it hadn’t been for FTX and the extreme nervousness about crypto, that this wouldn’t have happened,” Frank told POLITICO this week. “That wasn’t something that could have been anticipated by regulators.”
FTX, the crypto exchange that collapsed in November amid allegations of massive fraud, capped a year of turmoil in crypto markets, as investors began withdrawing funds from riskier ventures in response to rising interest rates, which in turn exposed the shaky foundations underpinning the industry. The ensuing “crypto winter” saw the value of the industry plummet by two-thirds, from a peak of $3 trillion in 2021.
Policymakers sought to reassure the public that volatility in the crypto market, blighted by scams and charlatans who sought to profit from investors’ fear of missing out, would naturally be contained. With the collapse of SVB, that claim is facing its biggest test yet.
Patient zero
Under the contagion theory, “patient zero” could be traced back to the implosion of TerraUSD, an “algorithmic stablecoin” that relied on financial engineering to keep its value on par with the U.S. dollar. That promise fell short in May last year following a mass sell-off, creating panic among investors who had used the virtual asset as a safe haven to park cash between taking punts on the crypto market. The origin of the crash is still subject to debate but rising interest rates are often cited as one of the main culprits.
TerraUSD’s demise was catastrophic for a major crypto hedge fund called Three Arrows Capital, dubbed 3AC. The money managers had invested $200 million into Luna, a crypto token whose value was used to prop up TerraUSD, which had become the third largest stablecoin on the market. A British Virgin Islands court ordered 3AC to liquidate its assets at the end of June.

The fund’s end created even more problems for the industry. Major crypto lending businesses, such as BlockFi, Celsius Network and Voyager, had lent hundreds of millions of dollars to 3AC to finance its market bets and were now facing massive losses.
Customers who had deposited their digital assets with the industry lender were suddenly locked out of their accounts, prompting FTX — then the third largest crypto exchange — to step in and bail out BlockFi and Voyager. Meanwhile, central banks continued to raise rates.
The contagion seemed under control for a few months until revelations emerged in November that FTX had been using client cash to finance risky bets elsewhere. The exchange folded soon after, as its customers rushed to get their money out of the platform. BlockFi and Voyager, meanwhile, were left stranded.
Outbreak widens
This is the point where the outbreak of risk in the crypto industry might have jumped species into the banking sector.
Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank, two smaller banks that also failed last week, had extensive business with crypto exchanges, including FTX. Silvergate tried to downplay its exposure to FTX but ended up reporting a $1 billion loss over the last three months of 2022 after investors withdrew more than $8 billion in deposits. Signature also did its best to distance itself from FTX, which made up some 0.1 percent of its deposits.
FTX, the crypto exchange that collapsed in November amid allegations of massive fraud, capped a year of turmoil in crypto markets | Leon Neal/Getty Images
SVB had no direct link to FTX, but was not immune to the broader contagion. Its depositors, including tech startups, crypto firms and VCs, started burning their cash reserves to run their businesses after venture capital funding dried up.
“SVB and Silvergate had the same balance sheet structure and risks — massive duration mismatch, lots of uninsured runnable deposits backed by securities not marked to market, and inadequate regulatory capital because unrealized fair value losses excluded,” former Natwest banker and industry expert Frances Coppola told POLITICO.
Eventually, the deposit drain forced SVB to liquidate underwater assets to accommodate its clients, while trying to handle losses on bond portfolios and an outsized bet on interest rates. As word got out, the withdrawals turned into a bank run as frictionless and hype-driven as a crypto bubble.
Zachary Warmbrodt and Izabella Kaminska contributed reporting from Washington and London, respectively.
This article has been updated to correct the value of the crypto industry.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 14, 2023
Banks fought to fend off tougher regulation. Then the meltdown came.

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“Clearly, Silicon Valley Bank’s failure will embolden people who see the current regulatory system as insufficient,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Aaron Klein, a former Treasury Department official and Capitol Hill economist.
While the details of how the lender collapsed are still being sorted out, the political impact of the second-largest bank failure since 2008 “is the equivalent of a lake of water being dumped on the fire that seemed lit under some Republicans to pressure the Fed,” Klein said.
It’s one immediate way that Silicon Valley Bank’s meltdown is scrambling the banking industry’s Washington playbook and forcing it to rethink how it engages with Capitol Hill.
Bank lobbyists are now hoping the narrative focuses on other elements of the system that might have failed. At stake for the biggest lenders is whether they’ll be subject to the most significant strengthening of rules since the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
“SVB’s stunningly quick collapse should put an end to the nonstop attempts by banks, lobbyists and their political allies to weaken capital and other financial regulations that protect depositors, consumers, investors and financial stability,” said Dennis Kelleher, who advocates for tougher bank oversight as president and CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets.
The rules that the big bank lobby was focused on before SVB’s failure dealt with the capital funding buffers that lenders are required to maintain so they can absorb losses during downturns and spare taxpayers from having to bail them out.
The Fed and other bank regulators hiked capital requirements in the wake of the 2008 crash. In the last few months, a top official appointed by President Joe Biden — Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr — kicked off a “holistic review” of capital rules that were put in place over the last decade and suggested lenders should be subject to higher requirements.
Barr’s review rattled large banks. And so their main trade groups — the Bank Policy Institute, which counts SVB as a member, the Financial Services Forum and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association — mounted a campaign to argue that hiking capital requirements would be a drag on the economy. They churned out explainers challenging Barr’s assumptions, and executives made direct pleas to lawmakers who handle oversight of the Fed and other regulators.

“In response to higher capital requirements, banks have two choices,” JPMorgan Chase CFO Jeremy Barnum said at a March 1 Washington symposium the Bank Policy Institute held to showcase the bank capital debate. “We can charge higher prices or we can do less lending. Both of those choices are ultimately bad for consumers and businesses.”
The lobbying bore fruit last week when Powell testified before the House and Senate. Over his two days of testimony, a parade of lawmakers — mostly Republican — warned him about raising capital requirements and urged him to rein in Barr.
“Capital and its quality must be continually scrutinized,” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said at Powell’s March 7 hearing. “But increased capital does not necessarily provide an increased benefit.”
That opening salvo suggested that “the banking industry may be on solid footing to battle against the worst-case scenario,” analysts with the investment bank BTIG told clients in a note after the hearings.
Then on Friday, regulators rushed to rescue SVB, and lobbyists began panicking that their push on capital might be in trouble. Critics immediately connected the dots.
“Wall Street lobbyists and Republicans in Congress are pushing Fed Chair Powell for weak capital requirements at exactly the wrong time,” Warren said on Twitter Friday afternoon. “Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse underscores the need for strong rules to protect the financial system. Regulators must not buckle to pressure.”
Former Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, who led the central bank’s regulatory policy in the Obama administration, said in an interview Sunday that the Fed’s regulatory review should revisit rules for large regional banks. He pointed to a recent Fed policy change that allowed such lenders to escape tougher rules when they hold securities that have dropped in value — the exact issue that sparked SVB’s death spiral.
“It’s a question,” he said. “It’s not an answer.”
Some industry advocates are now hoping that the narrative coming out of the SVB failure focuses on faults at the Fed and other elements of bank regulation that were eased under the Trump administration.
“I’m sure somebody will find a way to say that this means that [global systemically important banks] should hold more capital, but it’s pretty hard to see that right now,” said one industry representative granted anonymity to talk candidly about the fallout. “Politics will find a way but the cogent argument is on the other side.”
A spokesperson for Scott said that what’s happening with Silicon Valley Bank “highlights why we cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach” to bank capital and that regulators must “appropriately supervise banks to ensure capital levels are tailored to corresponding risks.”
To be sure, the Fed is facing growing scrutiny of how it supervised SVB and what it might have missed in ongoing oversight by bank examiners, beyond specific rules. SVB was regulated by officials from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington as well as the regional Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Tarullo, who led Fed regulatory efforts after the 2008 crisis, said he has been worried about the central bank’s supervision of the industry “for quite a while.” His Trump-appointed successor and Barr’s predecessor, Randal Quarles, advocated for a lighter supervisory touch.
“There’s clearly a supervisory gap there, and for me the question is, does the gap originate at the on-the-ground supervisors, or does it originate in the instructions they were operating under?” Tarullo said. “Did the supervisors feel inhibited?”
“What’s really at issue here isn’t the rules,” said Federal Financial Analytics managing partner Karen Petrou, who advises bankers and others on policy. “It’s how they were enforced by supervisors clearly asleep at the wheel because they thought they had a safe, self-driving car.”
Victoria Guida and Sam Sutton contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 13, 2023
Banks must record transactions of politically exposed persons: Centre

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New Delhi: Centre has amended the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, making it mandatory for banks and financial institutions to record financial transactions of politically exposed persons (PEPs).
The amendments, which came into effect from March 7 onwards, also mandate that financial institutions will also have to collect information of financial transactions of non-profit organisations or NGOs.
The amended money laundering rules define PEPs as “individuals who have been entrusted with prominent public functions by a foreign country, including the heads of States or Governments, senior politicians, senior government or judicial or military officers, senior executives of state-owned corporations and important political party officials”.
The financial institutions will also have to register details of their NGO clients on the Darpan portal of the Niti Aayog and maintain the record for five years after the business relationship between a client and a reporting entity has ended or the account has been closed, whichever is later, a gazette notification said.
Subsequent to the change in rules, banks will now have to not only maintain records of financial transactions of PEPs and NGOs but also share them with the Enforcement Directorate, as and when required.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 11, 2023
Consumers Of Ganderbal, Rural Srinagar To Pay Water Tax Bills With JK Bank’s m-Pay App

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SRINAGAR: All registered consumers of District Ganderbal and rural Srinagar are informed that RWS Division Ganderbal/ Srinagar has uploaded Consumer Water tax Bills on m-Pay application of JK Bank Ltd.
Accordingly, all registered consumers of this division can pay their bills through m-Pay application of JK Bank against 13-digit consumer ID (newly assigned) or at any branch of JK Bank against hard copy of consumer Bill having 13-digit consumer ID.
The consumer ID’s can be obtained from the e-Billing Section of JS-PHE Rural Water Supply Division Ganderbal or Telephonically on following Mobile No.’s 9797232087, 9596981147.(GNS)

Previous articleEight Day Theatre Festival Concludes In Srinagar

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#Consumers #Ganderbal #Rural #Srinagar #Pay #Water #Tax #Bills #Banks #mPay #App
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 10, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank collapse sets off scramble in London to shield UK tech sector

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LONDON — The U.K. government was scrambling on Sunday to limit the fallout for the British tech sector from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a big U.S. lender to many startups and technology companies.
The government is treating the potential reverberations as “a high priority” after a run on deposits drove California-based SVB into insolvency, marking the largest bank failure since the global financial crisis, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in a statement Sunday morning. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other policymakers were on alert that problems at SVB could spread.
Hunt said the British government is working on a plan to backstop the cashflow needs of companies affected by SVB’s implosion and the halt in trading of its British unit, Silicon Valley Bank UK. The Bank of England announced on Friday that the U.K. unit is set to enter insolvency.

Silicon Valley Bank’s “failure could have a significant impact on the liquidity of the tech ecosystem,” Hunt said.
The government is working “to avoid or minimize damage to some of our most promising companies in the U.K.,” the chancellor said. “We will bring forward immediate plans to ensure the short-term operational and cashflow needs of Silicon Valley Bank UK customers are able to be met.”
Hunt told the BBC Sunday morning that the government would have a plan that deals with the operational cashflow needs of companies “in the next few days.”
Discussions between the governor of the Bank of England, the prime minister and the chancellor were taking place over the weekend, according to the statement.
Speaking on Sky News Sunday morning, Hunt said that Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey had made it clear that there was “no systemic risk to our financial system.” But Hunt warned that there was a “serious risk” to the technology and life-sciences sectors in the U.K.
Ministers held talks with the tech industry on Saturday after tech executives in an open letter warned Hunt that the SVB collapse posed an “existential threat” to the U.K. tech sector. They called for government intervention.
Britain’s science and technology minister on Saturday pledged to do “everything we can” to limit the repercussions on U.K. tech companies.
Michelle Donelan, who heads the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said in a tweet: “We recognize that the tech sector is often not cashflow positive as they grow and I am determined to stand with them as we do everything we can to minimize impact on the sector.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said protecting the U.K. sector from the impacts of SVB’s collapse was a “high priority” | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
A bank insolvency procedure for Silicon Valley Bank UK would mean eligible depositors would be paid the protected limit of £85,000, or up to £170,000 for joint accounts.
The Bank of England said in its Friday statement that SVB UK “has a limited presence in the U.K. and no critical functions supporting the financial system.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 9, 2023
Bank Holiday Alert! Big news! Banks will remain closed for 3 days

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Holi 2023: If you have to do any work related to the bank, then you should not delay any more for that work. We are saying this because banks will remain closed for 3 days this week due to Holi (2023) .
If you have important bank work this week, then you have only today’s time. Because in the second week of March, due to Holi , banks will remain closed for many days continuously. For this reason, you should complete the bank related works by today and tomorrow. Due to Holi in some states of the country, banks will remain closed for three days (Holi 2023 Bank Holiday) .
With this, there will be a holiday in banks for 12 days in the entire month of March. Regarding this, RBI has released the list of bank holidays for March 2023. There are a total of 12 holidays in March including different festivals, second and fourth Saturdays and four Sundays. Also, they open on the first and third Saturdays of every month, while the second and fourth Saturdays are bank holidays.
Banks will remain closed at these places even on March 7
Banks will remain closed for 3 days from tomorrow till the next day of Holi. Banks will have a holiday on March 7, 8 and 9 on account of Holi festival. Whereas on March 11, there will be second Saturday holiday and on March 12, there will be a Sunday holiday. However, in the meantime, online services will continue in banks.
According to RBI’s banking calendar, banks will remain closed on March 7, 2023 (Tuesday) in some states on the occasion of Holika Dahan. This includes Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Rajasthan’s Jaipur, Jammu, UP’s Kanpur and Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji, Ranchi and Srinagar.
Banks will remain closed in Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Gangtok, Imphal, Patna, Raipur, Aizawl, Bhopal, Lucknow, Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Ranchi, Shillong, Srinagar and Shimla on Wednesday, March 8. Banks will remain closed in Bihar on March 9 due to Bank Holi or Osang.
Work like this when the bank is closed

Even though banks will be closed for many days in Holi, but you will be able to transfer money through Mobile Banking, Net Banking sitting at home. Apart from this, you can also transfer money through UPI. At the same time, you can use ATM for cash withdrawal.
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( With inputs from : kashmirpublication.in )

March 6, 2023
Moody’s downgrades long-deposit ratings of five Pakistani banks

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Islamabad: Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of five Pakistani banks to Caa3 from Caa1, The Express Tribune reported. The ratings of Moody’s Investors Service suggest that the ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan is likely to have an adverse trickle-down impact on banks.
The inflation readings are at a historical high of 31.5 per cent in January and the central bank’s benchmark policy rate at a record high of 20 per cent has weakened the borrowers’ capacity to repay loans taken from banks, as per the news report.
Financial institutions might witness a large proportion of borrowers defaulting on repayment, which will lead to an increase in non-performing loans (NPLs) and bad loans, likely to affect the earnings of banks and deteriorate the quality of their assets.
Pakistan’s cash-strapped government stands to be the single largest borrower, having taken 85 per cent of total deposits in loans. Meanwhile, other borrowers comprise businesses and households, as per the news report.
According to Moody’s Investors Service, the five banks to be downgraded on deposit rating include Allied Bank Limited (ABL), Habib Bank Ltd (HBL), MCB Bank Limited (MCB), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and United Bank Ltd (UBL).
In addition to downgrading their long-term deposit ratings, the global ratings agency has also downgraded the five banks’ long-term foreign currency Counterparty Risk Ratings (CRRs) to Caa3 from Caa1, according to The Express Tribune report.
Furthermore, Moody’s has lowered the banks’ Baseline Credit Assessments (BCAs) to Caa3 from Caa1, and as a result, also downgraded their local currency long-term CRRs to Caa2 from B3 and their long-term Counterparty Risk Assessments to Caa2(cr) from B3(cr).
The global rating agency said that the downgrading of banks comes after its decision to downgrade the Pakistan government’s credit rating to Caa3 from Caa1, all of which reflect that default is imminent. However, Moody’s has changed the outlook from negative to stable earlier this week.

The downgrading of the banks by Moody’s demonstrates the weakening operational environment in Pakistan, as showcased by Moody’s lowering of its Macro Profile for Pakistan to “Very Weak” from “Very Weak+,” and the high interlinkages between the sovereign’s weakened creditworthiness and the banks’ balance sheets, as per the news report.
It further said, “The deterioration in Pakistan’s operating environment reflects both the rising government liquidity and external vulnerability risks, with foreign exchange reserves declining to critically low levels, as well as the high costs of living with headline inflation likely to rise further as energy prices increase in tandem with the removal of energy subsidies,” The Express Tribune reported.
Moody’s noted that these factors along with high-interest rates will dampen consumer confidence and compromise borrowers repayment capacity. Moreover, these factors will create additional pressure on banks’ earnings, asset quality, and capital metrics, and also potentially affect their financial stability.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 5, 2023
Bank customers Alert! Big news! Now banks will open only this

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Bank employees are going to get good news. His week off is about to increase. That means now they will have to work less days in a week. However, their working hours will be extended.
It is being claimed in the media reports that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is going to consider the demands of bank unions for holidays and working days in a week. If this rule is accepted then the bank employees will get great relief.
Work burden on bank employees
In fact, the issue of work burden on bank employees is repeatedly raised by bank unions. In view of this, they are demanding work for 5 days a week. According to media reports, IBA is considering the model of bank employees working 5 days a week and two days off.
Right now there are six weeks off in a month. It is being said that if this is implemented, the employees will get Saturday and Sunday off, while their working hours will increase by 5 days. They will have to work 40 minutes more everyday. According to media reports, after the new model is implemented, bank employees may have to work from 9.45 am to 5.30 am.
Let us tell you that now the employees get 6 days of week off in a month, while after the new model is implemented, they will get 8 days of week off. At present, apart from four Sundays in the bank, there is a holiday on the second and fourth Saturdays. This also creates a bit of confusion among the customers.
Two week offs are also being given by LIC
Tell that the government insurance company LIC is also giving two days week off to its employees. Before listing last year, LIC had implemented a model of working 5 days a week. After this the bank unions intensified their demands in this regard.

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( With inputs from : kashmirpublication.in )

March 3, 2023
Lt Governor chairs high-level meeting of Public Sector Banks, Administrative Departments & other Financial Institutions

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Appraises the action taken on the directions passed in the previous meeting on seamless credit to potential entrepreneurs and saturation of other government schemes aimed to facilitate the dreams of aspiring society
Jammu, Mar 02 (GNS): Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting of Public Sector Banks, Administrative Departments & other Financial Institutions, today at Civil Secretariat.
The Lt Governor reviewed the action taken on the directions passed in the previous meeting on seamless credit to potential entrepreneurs and saturation of other government schemes aimed to facilitate the dreams of aspiring society.
The Lt Governor directed the Public Sector Banks and other financial institutions for dedicated measures to ensure government benefits directly reach the people and put greater emphasis on lending for potential entrepreneurs, farmers, SHGs and rural development.
“Banking sector is the backbone of J&K’s growing economy and collective efforts should be made to facilitate common man, farmers, industries, SHGs and young entrepreneurs. Banks need to cooperate & complement government’s efforts in reaching out to beneficiaries of all flagship schemes,” the Lt Governor said.
He also observed that during the Back to Village-4 and My Town My Pride Programme, J&K Bank ensured a major share of 90% in extending the financial support to 75,000 youth recently, while other banks had merely 10 % contribution.
“This situation needs to change. All the Banks must increase the lending to promote entrepreneurship amongst youth, women and people from marginalised sections of society,” the Lt Governor further said.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the progress achieved to extend the benefits of Kisan Credit Cards to all the eligible farmers.

The banks were instructed to follow the delivery channels of RBI and saturate the distribution of Smart Cards to the KCC account holders by June, 2023.
The Lt Governor emphasized on support and guidance to the farmers in preparing project reports required by the banks through nodal agencies. He also emphasized on holding regular meetings at the district level with mission youth & other government departments to understand requirements of diverse sectors, the Lt Governor added.
The Chair was also briefed on the upcoming ‘Citizen’s portal for Government Sponsored Schemes’. The soon to be launched portal, prepared by J&K Bank will ensure that all the Banks operating in Jammu Kashmir seamlessly extend all the benefits of government schemes to the eligible beneficiaries.
The portal will enable a citizen to apply for a Government Sponsored Schemes directly online with OTP Authentication and check the status of his/her application online.
It will forward/route the applications from citizens to appropriate departments & teams in an integrated workflow and enable departments & teams to process and forward/route these applications to the concerned financing agencies.
Further the financing agencies can update status for these applications post processing. It will also facilitate generation of MIS/Reporting Dashboards, it was informed.
Directions were passed to explore possibilities to integrate all the schemes and other portals on a single platform and make the portal more interactive, multilingual and having a module of grievances redressal mechanism.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department; Sh Baldev Prakash, MD & CEO J&K Bank; Administrative Secretaries; HODs, Heads and representatives of several banks operating in the UT attended the meeting.(GNS)
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#Governor #chairs #highlevel #meeting #Public #Sector #Banks #Administrative #Departments #Financial #Institutions
( With inputs from : thegnskashmir.com )

March 2, 2023
Lt Governor chairs high-level meeting of Public Sector Banks, Administrative Departments & other Financial Institutions

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Jammu, Mar 02: Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting of Public Sector Banks, Administrative Departments & other Financial Institutions, today at Civil Secretariat.
The Lt Governor reviewed the action taken on the directions passed in the previous meeting on seamless credit to potential entrepreneurs and saturation of other government schemes aimed to facilitate the dreams of aspiring society.
The Lt Governor directed the Public Sector Banks and other financial institutions for dedicated measures to ensure government benefits directly reach the people and put greater emphasis on lending for potential entrepreneurs, farmers, SHGs and rural development.
“Banking sector is the backbone of J&K’s growing economy and collective efforts should be made to facilitate common man, farmers, industries, SHGs and young entrepreneurs. Banks need to cooperate & complement government’s efforts in reaching out to beneficiaries of all flagship schemes,” the Lt Governor said.
He also observed that during the Back to Village-4 and My Town My Pride Programme, J&K Bank ensured a major share of 90% in extending the financial support to 75,000 youth recently, while other banks had merely 10 % contribution.
“This situation needs to change. All the Banks must increase the lending to promote entrepreneurship amongst youth, women and people from marginalised sections of society,” the Lt Governor further said.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the progress achieved to extend the benefits of Kisan Credit Cards to all the eligible farmers.
The banks were instructed to follow the delivery channels of RBI and saturate the distribution of Smart Cards to the KCC account holders by June, 2023.

The Lt Governor emphasized on support and guidance to the farmers in preparing project reports required by the banks through nodal agencies. He also emphasized on holding regular meetings at the district level with mission youth & other government departments to understand requirements of diverse sectors, the Lt Governor added.
The Chair was also briefed on the upcoming ‘Citizen’s portal for Government Sponsored Schemes’. The soon to be launched portal, prepared by J&K Bank will ensure that all the Banks operating in Jammu Kashmir seamlessly extend all the benefits of government schemes to the eligible beneficiaries.
The portal will enable a citizen to apply for a Government Sponsored Schemes directly online with OTP Authentication and check the status of his/her application online.
It will forward/route the applications from citizens to appropriate departments & teams in an integrated workflow and enable departments & teams to process and forward/route these applications to the concerned financing agencies.
Further the financing agencies can update status for these applications post processing. It will also facilitate generation of MIS/Reporting Dashboards, it was informed.
Directions were passed to explore possibilities to integrate all the schemes and other portals on a single platform and make the portal more interactive, multilingual and having a module of grievances redressal mechanism.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department; Sh Baldev Prakash, MD & CEO J&K Bank; Administrative Secretaries; HODs, Heads and representatives of several banks operating in the UT attended the meeting.
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#Governor #chairs #highlevel #meeting #Public #Sector #Banks #Administrative #Departments #Financial #Institutions
( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )

March 2, 2023