Thursday 15 December 2011

Corporate And Banking Laws In India Rejuvenated

Of late, parliament of India is working really hard in the direction of rejuvenating corporate and banking laws of India. Many important bills are pending in the lok sabha that if passed would strengthen the corporate and banking laws of India.

Corporate laws in India are old and outdated. The Companies Bill 2011 has been tabled in the Lok Sabha. Similarly, banking laws in India are also outdated and does not accommodate the modern technology.

A significant development in this regard is happening in the banking sector of India. An integrated modern banking law for India is in pipeline. The parliamentary standing committee on finance has suggested for such integrated law for the banking sector of India.

However, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) need to implement the technological aspects more stringently and effectively. While RBI has acknowledged risks of e-banking in India still the proposed bill has not addressed the issues of online banking risks in India and their redressal. Although RBI has recently directed that all banks would have to create a position of chief information officers (CIOs) as well as steering committees on information security at the board level at the earliest yet these recommendations have not been implemented by the banks. Indian banks are poor at cyber security implementation.

Further, crucial issues like encryption standards for banks of India have also been ignored. Further ATM frauds in India and their techno legal prevention has also been missed by the committee. Cyber law due diligence for banks in India and Internet intermediary liability for banks of India have also skipped the attention of the committee. It would be better if the parliament of India also considers the techno legal issues and add them to the proposed Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011 before passing the same.