The Big Picture: The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2020

A bill to provide more powers to the RBI for regulating cooperative banks was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which comes in the backdrop of PMC Bank scam, seeks to strengthen cooperative banks by increasing professionalism, enabling access to capital, improving governance and ensuring sound banking through the RBI. Introducing the bill, Sitharaman said it is the "need of the hour" to avoid a PMC Bank-like crisis in the future. The proposed law seeks to enforce banking regulation guidelines of the RBI in cooperative banks, while administrative issues will still be guided by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies. It also proposed to bring cooperative banks on par with developments in the banking sector through better management and proper regulation of cooperative banks with a view to ensure that affairs of cooperative banks are conducted in a manner that protects the interest of depositors. On this edition of the big picture we will analyse the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020. Guests - Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, Consulting Editor, The Business Standard, Banuchandar Nagarajan, Former Consultant, The World Bank, Dr. Subhash Chandra Pandey, Former Financial Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, V. K. Suri, Banking & Financial Expert, Anchor - Frank Rausan Pereira Producer - Sagheer Ahmad