FINANCIAL TERMS

1) Type of assets

The assets portfolio of the banks is required to be classified as

(1) standard assets(2) sub-standard assets(3) doubtful assets and(4) loss assets.Standard asset is one that does not disclose any problems and which does not carry more than normal risk attached to the business .An asset which has been classified as NPA for a period not exceeding 12 months is considered as sub-standard asset.Doubtful asset is one which has remained NPA for a period exceeding 12 months.An asset which is considered uncollectible and loss has been identified by the bank or internal or external auditors or the RBI inspection and the loss has not been written off is regarded as loss asset. 

2) Core Banking Solutions (CBS)

Core Banking Solutions is a buzz word in Indian banking at present, where branches of the bank are connected to a central host and the customers of connected branches can do banking at any breach with core banking facility.

3) Prime Lending Rate

The minimum short-term interest rate charged by commercial banks to their most creditworthy clients. It is a reference interest rate used by banks for its lending purposes.

4) Parties of a Cheque:

There are three parties to the cheque

1-Drawer or Maker

2-The bank (Drawee) - on whom the cheque is drawn (i.e. the bank with whom the account is maintained by the drawer)

3- Payee – Payee is the person whose name is mentioned on the cheque to whom or to whose order the money is directed to be paid.

5) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

It is a reserve asset (known as ‘Paper Gold’) created within the framework of the International Monetary Fund in an attempt to increase international liquidity, and now forming a part of countries official forex reserves along with gold, reserve positions in the IMF and convertible foreign currencies.

6) Negotiated Dealing System

The Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) for electronic dealing and reporting of transactions in government securities was introduced in February 2002. It facilitates the members to submit electronically, bids or applications for primary issuance of Government Securities when auctions are conducted. NDS also provides an interface to the Securities Settlement System (SSS) of the Public Debt Office, RBI, Mumbai thereby facilitating settlement of transactions in Government Securities (both outright and repos) conducted in the secondary market.

7) NDS OM (Order Match)

In August, 2005, RBI introduced an anonymous screen based order matching module on NDS, called NDS-OM. This is an order driven electronic system, where the participants can trade anonymously by placing their orders on the system or accepting the orders already placed by other participants. NDS-OM is operated by the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL) on behalf of the RBI.

8) What is Asset Management Companies?

A company that invests its clients' pooled fund into securities that match its declared financial objectives. Asset management companies provide investors with more diversification and investing options than they would have by themselves. Mutual funds, hedge funds and pension plans are all run by asset management companies. These companies earn income by charging service fees to their clients.

9) "Soiled Note:" means a note which, has become dirty due to usage and also includes a two piece note pasted together wherein both the pieces presented belong to the same note, and form the entire note.

(ii) Mutilated banknote is a banknote, of which a portion is missing or which is composed of more than two pieces.

10) Imperfect banknote means any banknote, which is wholly or partially, obliterated, shrunk, washed, altered or indecipherable but does not include a mutilated banknote.

Zero Inflation

Inflation is the measure of rise in general prices in any economy over a given period of time.  Normally inflation is measured every week, but for the policy purposes its annual measure is taken into account. Inflation is measured by the government by considering the changes in wholesale price index and those in the consumer price index over the given period of time.

 

Inflation is of several types and the ‘creeping’ or ‘walking’ inflation of upto 5 per cent per annum is called functional inflation and considered good for the health of growing economies. Running, galloping and hyper inflation is bad for the economy as it also erodes the real income level of the poorer sections of the emerging economies, thereby making their livelihood even more difficult. Hence, in a developing economy, the government policies aim at keeping the inflation rate within the functional limits.

 

Due to increased prices of the food items, India, along with most parts of the world, faced high inflation rate in double digits during the middle of 2008, which could be termed as ‘running’ inflation. The government took several monetary and fiscal policy measures to control it and succeeded to bring it down. But in early 2009 a peculiar phenomenon was experienced. In March 2009, the inflation rate in the country went down as low as 0.44 per cent, a sudden drop from 2.43 per cent during the week prior to that. This has given rise to the speculation that the country may experience zero inflation rate. The apprehensions are that zero rate of inflation would act as discouragement to the new investors, who are likely to put on hold their new projects, which would affect the growth rate of the economy. Zero inflation reduces the level of profits drastically. Such a situation, though may be cheered by the consumers and benefit the poorer sections spending most of their earnings on consumption, yet may actually reduce the economic activity in the economy to the minimum. This may be harmful to the economy in the medium and long run.