Shaji KV, former chairman of the Kerala Gramin Bank, takes charge at NABARD

As his last assignment, he was in charge of strategy, planning and business development at the corporate office of Canara Bank. He was responsible for the successful amalgamation of Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank.

In Parliament, replying to a question, the minister said more than 12 lakh loans have been extended by public sector banks in rural areas across the country for setting up businesses, after the Covid period, that is, from April 2020 to November 2022.

It has been conveyed by the RBI that they have received 1,230 complaints under the RBI Ombudsman pertaining to ‘Delay in loan sanction/disbursement or non-observance of prescribed time schedule for disposal of loan applications’ during the period of 1 December 2021 to 11 November 2022, Karad said.

Of these, 1,139 complaints have been disposed of, he added.

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‘PSBs hired 86,996 contractual employees’

Replying to another question, Karad said Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have hired about 86,996 contractual employees for various activities.

As per PSBs and Indian Banks’ Association, public and private sector banks utilise the services of outsourced agencies to engage the contract workers for non-core banking activities, such as housekeeping, security guards, ATM guards, etc, he said.

This outsourcing is done as per Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines regarding engaging contract workers on a contract basis, he said.

The wages to such contract workers are paid as per the minimum wages prescribed by the government from time to time, he added.

In a separate reply, Karad said recently, all ministries/departments of the Centre have been asked to take action in ‘Mission Mode’, to fill the existing vacancies.

‘ATM frauds declined’

With regard to ATM fraud, Karad said that the amount involved in such frauds, based on the year of occurrence, has declined from ₹116 crore in the financial year 2019-20 to ₹76 crore in the financial year 2020-21, registering a decline of 34.5 percent and to ₹68 crore in the financial year 2021-22, a fall of 10.5per cent as per the data provided by the RBI.

To another question, he replied, DICGC has settled deposit insurance claims of 3,06,146 eligible depositors of 35 banks under All Inclusive Directions (AID), amounting to ₹4,055.10 crore from 1 September 2021, the date from when the DICGC (Amendment) Act, 2021 came into effect till 30 November.

DICGC (Amendment) Act, 2021 enables depositors to get time-bound access to their deposits up to ₹5 lakh through interim payments by Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) within 90 days of the imposition of AID.

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On Account Aggregator (AA), Karad said that the RBI has granted Certificate of Registration to six companies till date.

AA network has been introduced as a financial data-sharing system that could facilitate investing and credit, giving consumers access and control over their financial records and expanding the potential pool of customers for financial sector entities and fintech companies, he said.

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