New Delhi : Housing price inflation has slipped to nearly four-year low to below 4 per cent, a survey by the Reserve Bank said. It said that housing prices rose by 61 per cent during the last four and half years, with Jaipur recording the highest growth of 78 per cent. These findings are based on the Residential Property Price Index covering transaction level data on housing loans disbursed across select 13 cities, from select 35 scheduled commercial banks/ housing finance firms.
The highest growth in the index was in Jaipur at around 78 per cent, whereas the lowest growth was recorded in Greater Chandigarh and Hyderabad at around 40 per cent, it added.
“During FY13, house prices had been growing at a higher rate than that of housing rent. However, in the subsequent quarters, house price inflation and housing rent inflation moved hand-in-hand,” the release said. The survey also observed a decreasing trend in median LTV (Loan-to-Value) over the quarters, indicating increased cautiousness of banks in sanctioning housing loans. RBI has prescribed an upper limit of 80% on LTV for housing loans above Rs 20 lakh and 90% for housing loans up to Rs 20 lakh, respectively, with effect from December 23, 2010.
Only chip, PIN based debit/credit cards from Sep
Mumbai : The Reserve Bank asked banks to issue only chip-based and PIN enabled debit and credit cards from September, a move aimed at protecting customers from frauds. Some banks have moved to EMV chip and pin cards issuance, but a large number of banks continue to issue magnetic stripe cards.
As part of its security and risk mitigation measures for Card Present and Electronic Payment Transactions, the Reserve Bank said the acceptance infrastructure is getting geared to accept EMV chip and pin cards. It further said that the migration plan for existing magnetic stripe only cards will be framed in consultation with stakeholders and time-line for the same will be advised in due course.
Further, it said the time is appropriate to migrate away from magnetic stripe only cards to chip and pin cards on the level of readiness of the card acceptance infrastructure at point of sale and also implementation of PIN insertion system for debit card transaction by customers at the point of sale.
EMV chip card protects against counterfeit (skimming) card fraud. EMV Chip Card and PIN protects against both counterfeit (skimming) and lost and stolen card fraud.
