|
| Stock Market :
11:00 A.M |
| BSE |
10,244 |
+280 |
| NSE |
3,057 |
+84 |
| Re/US$ |
47.24 |
+0.41 |
|
Money Changing
4th November, 2008 |
|
Currency Notes |
|
Buy |
Sell |
| USD |
51.20 |
46.00 |
| GBP |
79.90 |
72.45 |
| AUD |
34.05 |
31.05 |
| CANADIAN |
42.85 |
38.25 |
| EURO |
64.15 |
57.65 |
| UAE |
14.05 |
12.45 |
|
|
|
| Guidelines on the anvil for OCBs |
|
A fresh set of guidelines in the form of minimum paid up capital norms and mandatory registration requirement for OCBs is on the anvil and the same which till recently did not pose a problem to the regulators, could mean a treatment similar to the FIIs.
The decision comes at a time when concerns have been raised over the possibility of local operators manipulating stock prices using the OCB route, a recent scrutiny of their operations revealed that OCBs with a paid-up capital of as little as $10 have been involved in transactions of hundreds of crores in the Ses and besides this, the RBI investigation into price manipulations of the Global Trust Bank scrip has thrown questions over the involvement of five OCBs with transactions of over Rs 3,000 crore.
The Reserve Bank of India is also examining as to what extent the OCB fund flows have been influenced by disinvestments of ADR/GRD holdings by these entities and so far no evidence of foreign exchange violations pertaining to these transactions have been traced. It may be mentioned that OCB transactions are linked to deliveries and actual realizations
RBI and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India have been passing the buck in respect of the contentious issue of regulating the OCBs to each other and although allowed to participate in the domestic equity markets since 1982, the OCBs were never really regulated.
Besides, the regulators did not see their operations in the domestic stock markets as a cause for concern and RBI’s stance in the matter has been that there is no statue which grants it the power to regulate OCBs, the central bank has said the only authority it has over regulating foreign capital is derived under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) which does not provide for regulations of the OCBs.
As a spin-off from the present irregularities in the financial system, RBI has advocated a different regulatory setup: a super regulator for the cooperative banks, which if goes down well could be adopted for NBFCs and OCBs include overseas companies, partnership firms, societies and other corporate bodies which are owned, directly or indirectly, to the extent of at least 60 per cent by individuals of Indian nationality or origin residing abroad as also overseas trusts in which at least 60 per cent of the beneficial interest is irrevocably held by such persons.
The various facilities granted to NRIs are also available with certain exceptions to OCBs so long as the ownership/beneficial interest held in ]them by NRIs continues to be at or above the level of 60 per cent. |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
