The Union Cabinet today gave its ex-post facto approval for modifying the payment & Settlement Systems Bill, 2006 ( Bill No. 50 of 2006). The Bill has since been passed by Lok Sabha on 26th November, 2007 and by Rajya Sabha on 3rd December, 2007.
An official amendment in Clause 4 of the Bill is as under : “After line 9, in Clause 4 : (2) ‘The Reserve bank may, under sub-section (1) of this section, authorize a company or corporation to operate or regulate the existing clearing houses or new clearing houses of banks in order to have a common retail clearing house system for the banks throughout the country; Provided, however, that not less than fifty one percent of the equity of such company or corporation shall be held by public sector banks.
Explanation : For the purposes of this clause, “public sector banks’ shall include a ‘corresponding new bank”, “State Bank of India” and “subsidiary bank” as defined in Section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949).’
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(Release ID :34370)