Rajan announces confidence boosting measures for banks

New banking licenses will be issued by January.

In his first day in office, India's new central bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan, announced short-term measures to boost confidence as the battered Indian economy slows and the rupee depreciates. Among the forthcoming measures he promised were that existing banks will be able to open new domestic branches without RBI permission and that long-awaited new banking licenses will be issued in January 2014. 

He said the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, will soon issue inflation-indexed savings certificates and take steps to encourage financial services for the poor, including making payments easier through mobile banking. Rajan also vowed to improve the system for banks to recover bad loans by speeding-up the work of debt recovery tribunals and asset reconstruction companies.

Rajan will have his first full policy address on Sept. 20. "Some of the actions I take will not be popular," he said, but added, "The governorship of the central bank is not meant to win one votes of Facebook 'likes.'" Rajan was not expected to make specific policy changes on the day he was sworn into office, but he announced short-term measures at a televised news conference.