The Reserve Bank should give preference to the non-corporate sector for new bank licences, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council ChairmanC Rangarajan said. 

“It is possible for the Reserve Bank to start with initially non-corporate business and find out whether there are suitable applicants and thereafter proceed to look at the other applicants,” he said in an interview. 

The RBI is in the process of finalising the guidelines for giving new bank licences after Parliament approved Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill last month. 

The central bank, Rangarajan said, “should look at various types of financial institutions that are available currently and decide”. 

“…. many of the strong private sector banks today have been at one time or other in the financial system. They can look at it first and look at the other later on,” he said.  >> Read More

In Europe, the “no news” vacation for the past month was great news. The news is back… As is Merkel.

• “The Euro Crisis May Last 20 Years” - Welt

The first five years of the global crisis are over, investors flee from complex financial products and into gold, silver and commodities. Experts warn against a false sense of security. “We should not give us the illusion that the crisis will soon be over,” says Patrick Artus of the French bank Natixis. Years of negative developments such as the growing debt, or the de-industrialization of specific sectors should now be reversed. “Such a process takes time.” Arthur looks to get politically and economically unstable savers years. “Investors have to live with depressed markets and considerable fluctuations learn.” In his view, it must not remain in a lost decade. “The euro crisis may also last 20 years,” says Arthur.

• German finmin: no new aid programme for Greece - Reuters

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that there were limits to the aid that could be granted to Greece and said the crisis-stricken country should not expect to be granted another programme.”It is not responsible to throw money into a bottomless pit,” Schaeuble said at a government open day in Berlin. “We cannot create yet another new programme.”

• Euro Countries Plan Strategies to Prevent Break-Up: Sueddeutsche (via Bloomberg) >> Read More