A look at recent personal finance rulings which can affect you:
BANKING> In an attempt to tackle the issue of unclaimed deposits, the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reiterated that banks should be pro-active in tracing customers and their legal heirs linked with unclaimed deposits/inoperative accounts. The banks have to put up a list of unclaimed deposits by 30 June 2012. The RBI has advised them to have a policy on classification of unclaimed deposits and grievance redressal mechanism and periodic reviews of such accounts, the first of which should be done by 30 September 2012.
CAPITAL MARKETS> The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will not settle serious offences, including insider trading, front-running, failure to make an open offer, manipulation of NAVs, failure to redress investor grievances and non-compliance of summons, through the consent process, according to the new framework for passing consent orders. "The defaults falling in the category of fraudulent and unfair trade practices, which in the opinion of Sebi are very serious and have caused substantial losses to the investors, shall also not be consented," the regulator said.
INSURANCE> The insurance regulator has allowed life insurers to allot 'orphan' policies to individual agents with a valid licence for providing the services to policyholders. Orphan policies are those which are not being serviced due to termination of services of the original agent. Insurers will have to notify the particulars of the newly-allotted agent to the policyholders who will get all the services being rendered by the original agent.
