RBI Does Away With Calendar of Reviews for Banks' Boards

The RBI has done away with the mandatory calendar of reviews for boards of banks in order to make their functioning of more effective.

"Banks are advised to determine the board agenda items and the periodicity thereof, with the approval of their boards, such that there is adequate focus on matters of strategic and financial importance, including the seven broad themes...," RBI said in a notification.

RBI replaced it with the seven critical themes prescribed by the P J Nayak Committee "namely, business strategy, financial reports and their integrity, risk, compliance, customer protection, financial inclusion and human resources, and leave it to banks' boards to determine other list of items to be deliberated and periodicity thereof," it said.

The RBI has prescribed a comprehensive calendar of reviews to be deliberated by the boards of banks, with significant additions to the calendar over the years.

It has been observed that calendar of reviews uses considerable board time and as a result the Board may not be in a position to give focused attention to matters of strategic and financial importance, it said.

"Time spent on reviews reduces the leeway for the board to discuss issues of strategic importance for banks such as product market strategy and risk management," it said.