founded · 6 March 1934
RBI BMS 1954 is the standard statistical record of the Bank's first two decades; the IOR holds the Financial Department's Reserve Bank run at IOR/L/F/7 Collection 32 and the RBI's own printed summaries at IOR/L/F/5/72–75
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: IOR/L/F/7/312–339; IOR/L/F/5/72–75; dli.ernet.505603
Reserve Bank of India Act · regulation · 1 January 1934
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3
Reserve Bank of India · 29 November 1934
Sir Osborne Arkell Smith, then one of two Managing Governors of the Imperial Bank of India, offered and accepted the Governorship, term three and a half years
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 4
RBI
61 sections, 242 clauses, 5 schedules. Ownership: a private shareholders' bank, capital Rs 5 crore in 5,00,000 fully paid shares of Rs 100 [s.4(1)]; five geographical areas under the First Schedule, a specified portion of capital assigned to each [ss.4(2), 4(5)]; s.4(8) reserved shares to the Central Government. Dividend: cumulative rate not exceeding 5 per cent fixed by the Governor-General in Council at issue; further graduated dividend out of surplus per the Fourth Schedule; balance to Government [s.47]; maximum dividend 6 per cent. Voting: restricted; shareholders served only as electoral colleges and at the AGM could elect auditors and discuss the accounts and annual report [s.14]. Board: Governor and Deputy Governors appointed by the Governor-General in Council on the Central Board's recommendation; four Directors nominated by the Governor-General in Council [s.8(1)]; the Governor-General in Council could remove the Governor, Deputy Governors and any nominated or elected Director [s.11(1)]. Extent: "the whole of British India, including British Baluchistan and the Sonthal Parganas" [s.1(2)]; not formally extended to the princely States though effective there in practice
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3
Commercial banks
Banks with paid-up capital and reserves of Rs 5 lakh or more, being companies under s.2(2) of the Indian Companies Act 1913 (or foreign corporations), to be included in the Second Schedule; scheduled banks to maintain with the RBI a daily balance of not less than 5 per cent of demand liabilities and 2 per cent of time liabilities [s.42(1)]
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3, ch. 15; STBI1947
Scheduled-bank entry
The Second Schedule of the 1933 Bill had listed 69 banks on the Rs 3 lakh criterion; the Select Committee substituted Rs 5 lakh and the amended, provisional Schedule listed 50 banks, approved by the Legislature
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3 n.
RBI offices
Head Office in Bombay; branches as soon as possible in Calcutta, Madras, Rangoon, Delhi and London. The London Committee secured the dropping of the obligatory London branch; the 1933 Bill required the Governor-General in Council's previous sanction to open a branch elsewhere than India
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3
Government shareholding
2,200 shares (Rs 2.2 lakh nominal) reserved to the Central Government at par for directors' share qualification
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 p. 130
Indian States
The RBI was obliged to accept deposits from, make payments for and manage the public debt of such Indian States as the Governor General in Council notified, and to act as their agent; States were entitled to short-term accommodation against eligible security and their securities could be bought, sold and held by the Bank. The Act did not formally apply to the princely States, but "in actual practice, the provisions were effective in these territories also"
VerifiedOfficial record. Source: RBIH1 ch. 3 pp. 101–102 and p. 60
