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Indian banks all set for transition to the era of Euro

Leading commercial banks have assured the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India Dr Y Venugopal Reddy that various steps relating to transition to the Euro currency like setting up of correspondent arrangements, opening of Euro deposit accounts, training of staff, settlement transactions and changes in the 'swift' messaging standards have been taken and changes in systems to handle and report 'euro' transactions effected.

At a meeting held in Bombay today, the banks also reported special initiatives taken by several of them in order to prepare not only their staff but also the customers for the Euro.

Besides organising seminars, many banks had brought out booklets on Euro, established ''helpline'' desks at their central office as access centre for all queries by staff and customers on Euro, identified nodal officers at key branches to handle customer queries and so on.

They expressed their arrangements for consultations and interactions among themselves and with correspondent banks, an RBI release said.

RBI has been closely monitoring the preparedness of the Indian banking system in the run up to the introduction of Euro. In November 1998, it had issued detailed instructions on the subject and circulated the report of the working group on Euro to the banks.

Thereafter, banks were specifically advised to organise training programmes for the staff and the customers.

The representative from the Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India mentioned that it had initiated active follow-up action after the release of a comprehensive RBI report on the subject, and issued detailed instructions to banks on market practices and changes to FEDAI rules.

FEDAI had also conducted a series of seminars in major centres on Euro and brought out a booklet on Euro which among others contains full set of instructions on the subject issued by RBI and FEDAI.

A number of banks had also advised them about the Euro correspondent arrangements. FEDAI representative was confident that with the issue of all relevant operating instructions by RBI and FEDAI, the transition to Euro would be smooth.

UNI

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