RBI staff stir hits Rs 50 lakh crore deals

Today’s Topic of Week, sheds some light on the effect of  strike/mass casual leave, by Reserve Bank of India Officials, on Indian Settlement Systems.         

In the last 3 months, Reserve Bank of India officials,  have gone on strike/mass casual leave twice.  This action by RBI Officials has affected RTGS-(Real Time Gross Settlement) apart from the Cheque Clearing Operations.

RBI employees had gone on strike for the same issue on October 21, 2008 and February 20, 2009.

As NEFT Settlement is dependant on RTGS-(Real Time Gross Settlement) , NEFT too got affected.

Due to the strike/mass casual leave on Friday, Saturday –half day, Sunday-Holiday, Monday-Mahasivarathri Holiday, there was a very heavy load on the RTGS Network on Saturday i.e February 21, 2009.

Transactions amounting to almost Rs 50,00,000 crore were stalled by the all-India strike by over 2,500 employees and officers of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) On Friday, demanding update of the pension scheme.

Employees have proposed to approach Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for an early resolution of the matter, which has been a point of contention for five months now.

The strike affected real time settlement (RTGS) of transactions worth Rs 3,00,000 crore and clearing of around 18,00,000 cheques all over India, primarily in Mumbai (8,00,000 cheques) and metro centres, which amounted to approximately Rs 20,00,000 crore.

There were no settlements in the domestic money market, foreign exchange market and stock exchanges.

                RTGS-(Real Time Gross Settlement) was launched in March 2004, and since than has made rapid strides. The country’s economic capability is linked to the successful functioning of the RTGS, and there have been very few full-day failures in RTGS, either technical or man-made. Hence, it puts on an onerous responsibility, on all the stake-holders for the smooth functioning of RTGS - (Real Time Gross Settlement)