Working Group on Information Security, Electronic Banking, Technology Risk Management and Cyber Frauds – Part 1

Working Group on Information Security, Electronic Banking, Technology Risk Management and Cyber Frauds – Part  1

Reserve Bank of India on 21^st Jan 2011, released the Report of Working Group on Information Security, Electronic Banking, Technology Risk Management and Cyber Frauds

The Press Release can be accessed @ http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=23789

The Press Release contains link to the Full report as well as the Highlights of the Report.

Link of Main Report @ http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/PublicationReportDetails.aspx?UrlPage=&ID=609

Link for Highlights of the Report @ http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/PublicationReportDetails.aspx?UrlPage=&ID=610

The report is exhaustive and is divided into 9 sections namely : -

1.     IT Governance,

2.     Information Security,

3.     IS Audit,

4.     IT Operations,

5.     IT Services Outsourcing,

6.     Cyber Fraud,

7.     Business Continuity Planning,

8.     Customer Awareness programme’s

9.     Legal issues.

The Working Group was set up, as the Governor had announced, in the Annual Monetary Policy Statement 2010-11 in April, 2010, a creation of a Working Group on Information Security, Electronic Banking, Technology Risk Management and Tackling Cyber Fraud.

The Working Group was led by  Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India, Shri.G.Gopalakrishna.

He was assisted by a group of distinguished professionals.

They  are :

A) G.Sivakumar : http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~siva/

Professor at the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technoly, BombayH.Krishnamurthy

B) Pavan Duggal : - http://www.pavanduggal.net/

Advocate , Supreme Court of India and President, Cyberlaws.Net.

C) Patric Kishore :

General Manager (IT) & CISO, State Bank of India

D) Nandkumar Saravade :- http://www.saravade.com/About_Me.html

·         General Manager, Financial Crime Prevention and Reputation Risk Management at ICICI Bank

·         Chairman at India Payment Card Risk Counci

E) Sanjay Sharma  http://www.tfci.com/iba_tfci/banktech08/Sanjay_Sharma.htm

Managing Director & CEO, IDBI Intech Ltd

F) Akhilesh Tuteja : - http://in.linkedin.com/in/akhileshtuteja

Executive Director with the IT Advisory practice of KPMG in India.

G) Abhay Gupte : - http://in.linkedin.com/pub/abhay-gupte/9/274/375

CEO India at Logica

H) K.Ramakrishnan : http://www.iba-banktech.com/2009/Ramakrishnan.html

Chief Executive, Indian Banks' Association

I)                   Kamlesh Bajaj : http://in.linkedin.com/pub/kamlesh-bajaj/6/557/b9

CEO of Nasscom’s Data Security Council of India

J)B.Sambamurthy : http://www.idrbt.ac.in/staff/other_faculty/Subramanyan/Subramanyan.html

Distinguished Fellow, IDRBT

K) P.K.Panda : Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India.

As can be seen from the above list, the committee’s combined skills are vast and the report reflects their rigid exertion.

From Safe ePayments Motivator angle, two sections immediately attracted me are

1.     

Business Continuity Planning,

2.     

Customer Awareness programme’s

All other sections revolve around the above two only.

In the coming days, there will be new posts on this Report i.e Report of Working Group on Information Security, Electronic Banking, Technology Risk Management and Cyber Frauds

I am signing off by reading Swami Vivekananda’s  Quote:

If the mind is intensely eager, everything can be accomplished—mountains can be crumbled into atoms.

Review of Service Charges for Cheque Collection – Local, Outstation and Speed Clearing

Review of Service Charges for Cheque Collection – Local, Outstation and Speed Clearing

Reserve Bank of India, DPSS has issued a Notification today, with wide reaching implications for the Cheque Collection Operations of Banks.

The Notification will be effective from 01/04/2011.

The Notification No is RBI/2010-11/377 DPSS.CO.CHD.No. 1671 / 03.06.01 / 2010-11 dt.January 19, 2011

 The complete Notification can be accessed @ http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=6228&Mode=0

The highlights of the Notification are: -

01)                       There are advantages of using electronic payments, especially for large value transactions.

02)                       RBI will continue to protect the interest of Saving Bank account holders by mandating charges for smaller value transactions relating to saving bank accounts.

03)                       Freedom is specified to Banks, to determine charges for larger value transactions i.e. collection of instruments for credit to other types of accounts.

04)                       The charges so levied, should be fair and transparent.

05)                       Board of Directors has to approve the Service Charge Structure.

06)                       The services charges should specify the maximum charges that they would have to pay, including charges if any, payable to other banks.

07)                       Freeing of Service charges will hasten the movement from paper mode to electronic mode.

The Charges Table – Reproduced from Reserve Bank of India website.

(a)  Service (Processing) Charges for Local Clearing (by Clearing Houses from Member Banks) –

System	Existing (Rs.)		Revised (Rs.)
	Presenting Bank	Drawee Bank	Presenting Bank	Drawee Bank
Clearing at MICR-CPCs	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.50
Cheque Truncation	0.50	0.50	0.50	1.00

(b) Service Charges for Outstation Cheque Collection –

Existing (Rs.)		Revised (Rs.)
	Service charge from all customers		Service Charge from Savings a/c customers
Up to and including 10,000	50	Up to and including 5,000	25^
		Above 5,000 and up to and including 10,000	50*^
Above 10,000 and up to and including 1,00,000	100	Above 10,000 and up to and including 1,00,000	100*^
Above 1,00,000	150	Above 1,00,000	Left to the banks to decide

* No change.

^ All inclusive maximum amount chargeable by banks to the customers.

(c)  Service  Charges  for  Cheque  Collection  under  Speed  Clearing  (by  Collecting  Banks  from customers) –

Existing (Rs.)		Revised (Rs.)
	Service charge from all customers		Service charge from Savings a/c customers
Up to and including 1,00,000	Nil	Up to and including 1,00,000	Nil*
Above 1,00,000	150	Above 1,00,000	Left to the banks to decide

* No change.

The implications of this Notification:

A)    Hectic strategic sessions to draw up the new Service Charge Structure.

B)    Minor Programming changes might be required, as almost all Banks are on Core Banking Solutions (CBS)

C)    Frequent revision of Service Charges depending on the competition.

D)   Accelerate the migration from Paper Mode to Electronic Mode.

IBA - Conferences

IBA  - Conferences

Indian Bank Association – IBA regularly organizes conferences on various banking issues.

The conferences are paid events and the participants have to remit the conference fees.

Till 2010, IBA used to collect the same through Demand Drafts/Pay Orders

However, in 2011, it has introduced an ePayments option too i.e. SWIFT and NEFT mode.

A sample registration form can be accessed @

http://www.iba.org.in/events/2011Registration.pdf

This is a great way to popularize ePayments.

The ePayments option can be adopted by other Conference Organizers too.

Cheers to IBA.

Kotak Mahindra Bank joins IMPS on 07/01/2011

Kotak Mahindra Bank joins IMPS on 07/01/2011

It is only a soft launch. In a couple of months, all the Kotak Mahindra Bank customers would be able to fully utilize the network of IMPS.

As already few Banks are part of the IMPS, Kotak Mahindra Bank, will be able to commercial launch IMPS soon, ironing out the glitches if any.

This is the non-banking finace company which was given a Licence by Reserve Bank of India, to convert into a Bank.

At present, the Bank has 245 brick and mortar branches and 75 ATM’s

Of course, the number of ATM’s is irrelevant, as customers can access any Bank ATM.

Corporation Bank joins the IMPS wagon

 Corporation Bank joins the IMPS wagon

On 05/01/2011, Corporation Bank joined the IMPS wagon. A soft launch has been done, and in the near future the Corporation Bank customers can experience the magic of IMPS.

Incidentally, Corporation Bank was the first and only bank to offer NEFT through its ATM’s.

Corporation Bank is having a Pan-India presence, and is a pioneer in the Cash Management Services in our country.

As this is just a soft launch, no details of IMPS have been updated on its website.