Public Holidays in the State of Goa during the year 2012 - Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

 Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act 1881 is the Basic Law regulating Indian Banking System. The Act came into existence on 01/03/1882.

It is important to remember that State Government have to specifically declare Holidays under the Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 for Banks to be closed on that particular day.

Otherwise, the Holiday is applicable only to State Government offices.

Public Holidays in the State of Goa during the year 2012 - Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

Public Holidays for the Year 2012 in the State of Goa

Please find enclosed a copy of the Government Notification containing the list of public holidays declared under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 in the State of Goa for the Year 2012.

In the said list, the Government of Goa has declared Sunday, 1st April 2012 and Sunday, 30th September 2012 as public holidays for annual / half yearly closing of bank accounts respectively. Accordingly, we have taken up the matter with the Government of Goa with a request to issue an amended notification declaring Monday, 2nd April 2012 and Saturday, 29th September 2012 as public holidays to enable banks to close their annual and half yearly accounts, respectively. On receipt of such notification, we shall advise member banks.

It is clarified that 'public holiday' declared by Central / State Governments / Union Territory, includes 'Sundays' as indicated under the explanation to Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Public Holidays in the State of Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the year 2012 - Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

 Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act 1881 is the Basic Law regulating Indian Banking System. The Act came into existence on 01/03/1882.

It is important to remember that State Government have to specifically declare Holidays under the Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 for Banks to be closed on that particular day.

Otherwise, the Holiday is applicable only to State Government offices.

Public Holidays in the State of Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the year 2012 - Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

Public Holidays for the Year 2012 in the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar

Please find enclosed a copy of the Government Notification containing the list of public holidays declared under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 in the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar for the Year 2012.

In the said list, the Government of Orissa has not declared Monday, 2nd April 2012 as public holiday to enable the banks to close their annual accounts and Saturday, 29th September 2012 as public holiday for half yearly closing of bank accounts. Accordingly, we have taken up the matter with the Government of Andaman & Nicobar with a request to issue an amended notification declaring Monday, 2nd April 2012 and Saturday, 29th September 2012 as public holidays to enable banks to close their annual and half yearly accounts. On receipt of such notification, we shall advise member banks.

RTGS Holidays - 2012

RTGS Holidays – Year 2012

No	DATE	OCCASION
1	Thursday, January 26, 2012	Republic Day
2	Monday, April 02, 2012	Annual Closing of Banks
3	Friday, April 06, 2012	Good Friday
4	Monday, July 02, 2012	Annual Closing of RBI
5	Wednesday, August 15, 2012	Independence Day
6	Monday, August 20, 2012	Ramjan Id (Id-Ul-Fitar) (Shawal-1)
7	Saturday, September 29, 2012	Half Yearly Closing of Banks
8	Tuesday, October 02, 2012	Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti
9	Wednesday, October 24, 2012	Dasara / Dashami
10	Tuesday, November 13, 2012	Diwali Amavasya (Laxmi Pujan) / Kali Puja
11	Tuesday, December 25, 2012	Christmas

Market for Indian Mobile Payment Segment - US$350 billion by 2015 - Is your Bank ready to be part of it?

The Interbank Mobile Payment Service(IMPS) launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in June 2010, received a boost as Citibank has introduced a new Cash Management Solution, around it.

The solution has been branded as Citi Cash-to-Mobile and it was launched last week, with a pilot in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh with the retailer's of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCB), the bottling operation of the Coca-Cola Company in India, being the privileged lot.

The aim of this product is to completely automate the Receivables of a corporate, thereby freeing the company resources to concentrate on other activities.

Aimed at Corporate and Institutional clients, this market first solution empowers corporate customers to receive funds from retailers or end customers instantly via mobile.

As a Safe ePayments motivator, this new development is very exciting and the publicity surrounding this launch will now encourage more and more banking consumers, to experience the magic of IMPS.

Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) the  seven digit random number issued by the bank upon registration for IMPS is a necessity for Citi Cash-to-Mobile to succeed.

The Process flow is as under:

01) The corporate opens a Banking Account with Citi and a MMID is issued to it.

02) The MMID is communicated to it’s distributions channel partners.

03) The distribution channel partners MMID’s are obtained and updated in the Bank’s as well as the Corporate’s  Enterprise Resource Planning solution

04) On the payment due date, a SMS is flashed by the corporate, reminding it’s channel partners on the bill amount due.

05) The channel partners transfer the funds via IMPS module.

06) As the channel partners MMID is stored on the  Enterprise Resource Planning solution, the reconciliation is done, and the MIS reports forwarded to all concerned.

06) As IMPS works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the reconciliation can be done hourly, and the channel distributors be encouraged to remit money any time of the day or night.

07) The common excuse of ‘bank is closed’, will not be a show-stopper for Bill Payments.

Short term impact: -

a) 30 + Banks are on IMPS, but the remaining Banks have to enter the IMPS circuit, as otherwise the corporates might encourage their channel partners to move to banks offering IMPS.

b) Banks have to offer the complete suite of mobile banking services to enable its customers to obtain the full benefits of IMPS.

c) The CASA average balances at the Sending Bank and Receiving Bank, will increase as the Sender’s have to maintain adequate balance to transfer and the Receiver balance will go up correspondingly.

d) Banks too have to move to a 24*7 Core Banking Solution (CBS), as now funds can move in, move out 24*7.

e) The retail customers once are familiar with IMPS, will be encouraged to try out this  channel for other payments/receivables too. This will provide the  much needed jump for IMPS.

Security:

01) The Amount Limits are as under: -

With end to end encryption: A daily cap of Rs. 50,000 per customer per day for both, fund transfer and transactions involving purchase of goods and services

Without end to end encryption: Transactions up to Rs. 5,000 can be facilitated ( RBI Circular Dated May 4, 2011  2011  RBI/2010 RBI/2010--11/511  11/511 DPSS.CO.No.2502  DPSS.CO.No.2502 /02.23.02/  /02.23.02/ 2010 2010--11)

02) The funds cannot be transferred without a MMID.And, a MMID is attached to a Bank Account. Hence the chance of fraud is low.

Thanks to Citi, for being the first bank to introduce a Solution around IMPS. Now, there is no stopping for IMPS.

The possibilities are endless. Which will the next Bank to tap IMPS innovatively?

Let me end today’s Post with a quote : -

"It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date."

— Roger von Oech

Will the Indian Online channel security market too explode?

According to ABI Research, the US market will require 1.8 billion unit’s of  one-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens,  by 2016, for  increased security requirements for online transactions will create

As ePayments including Internet / Mobile banking are on increasing trend in India, there will be demand for  one-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens.

All the above, are part of the 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) cycle, which is becoming the norm for all all BFSI (Banking, Finance Services, Insurance) transactions.

So, I will explain in brief the overall view of the above 3 security products.

One-time-password generators, portable smart card readers, and USB tokens are hardware based solutions

What are one-time password generators?

A one-time password (OTP) is a password that is valid for only one login session or transaction. The session might last from 30 mts to 120mts depending on the tranmission mode of the OTP.

In contrast to static passwords, they are not vulnerable to replay attacks. This means that, if a potential intruder manages to record an OTP that was already used to log into a service or to conduct a transaction, he or she will not be able to abuse it since it will be no longer valid.

OTP’s cannot be memorised, as they are generated when required or are selected from a set of OTP’s on a paper .

OTP’s are primarily generated by time-synchronised or mathematical algorithms method.

Each method has its own plus and minus points.

OTP’s are delivered via

a) Text messaging.

b) Mobile Phones.

c) Proprietary tokens.

d) Web-based methods.

e) Paper

Yes, Paper, in some countries viz Germany and Austria, for  online banking, the bank sends to the user a numbered list of OTPs that are printed on paper. For every online transaction, the user is required to enter a specific OTP from that list. As and when an OTP’s is used, it gets expired. Another interesting use of a pre-calculated OTP Paper is the replacement of  the easy to guess security questions on websites.

In recent times, OTP’s have been part of the MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attacks. Hence, IT Security are finding various ways to make strong OTP’s.

What are portable smart card readers?

Smart cards are being used worldwide to secure identities in many applications, such as bank payment cards, employee access badges, government identity cards and health care IDs.

The Smartcard require readers to read the information stored on the Smartcard and hence, portable smart card readers are being introduced by IT Security companies.

Cardholders can use the reader to pay more securely or to authenticate their network identities with banks, employers, government agencies, or healthcare providers.

The readers enable cardholders to use their smart cards anytime, anywhere with PCs, the Internet or other terminals. Depending on the Smart card and the reader model, some  allow physical access to buildings, too.

What are USB tokens?

As the name suggests, USB is a security token which may be a physical device that an authorized user of computer services is given to ease authentication  or a software token.

The function of  Security token is to prove one's identity electronically (as in the case of a customer trying to access their bank account). The token is used in addition to or in place of a password to prove that the customer is who they claim to be. The token acts like an electronic key to access something.

There are four  types of tokens:

Static password.

Synchronous dynamic password

Asynchronous password

Challenge response

Security token is the “something you have”, used along with a PIN or password, the “something you know”.

The token can hold multiple types of credentials, including multiple certificates, key sets, finger-based biometric templates, user names and passwords and software token seed records. The main advantage of a USB token is that a smart card reader is not required.

The Indian consumers would be interested in the above 3 Security Products, to enhance their Internet/Mobile BFSI transactions.

A more detailed study on the pros and cons of each product, might help the BFSI companies to offer the safest possible product to their clients.