World Bank caution on guarantees

The World Development Report has emphasised the need for limiting government exposure to contingent liabilities while encouraging private investment in the infrastructure sector. Asking governments to ‘Look before you leap,’ the report, published by the World Bank, says that especially important issues arise in the power sector as project sponsors focus on the creditability and solvency of their buyer, typically a government utility that transmits and distributes power.

RBI move to monitor customer service

‘The customer is the king.’ Indian banks are slowly becoming aware of the importance of this dictum. To make banks more customer-oriented the Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with Indian Banks Association (IBA) has drawn up a uniform format for evaluation and monitoring of containing 25 core customer service areas. The RBI has advised the banks to undertake periodic evaluation of customer service. Further, IBA has prepared a uniform format of a complaint book which has been so designed that the complainants can be given “acknowledged copy” immediately.

Options to remodel capital under study

With some of the nationalised banks making sizeable profits for the year ending March 31, 1994, they will be looking at entering the market to raise funds. Banks planning to enter the market are Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda, though Union Bank is likely to tap the market by the end of 1995. This is to be preceded by a restructuring of Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital of banks and the RBI has started examining many options.

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