₹100 note more likely to be a fake, says RBI report

RBI WORRIED OF NONADHERENCE TO IRAC NORMS

MUMBAI: The 100 rupee is the most counterfeited Indian currency with its popularity among forgers having surged since the government invalidated high-value banknotes about two years ago to curb the menace of fake notes and unaccounted wealth.

Around 46% of counterfeit currencies (by number of banknotes) detected by banks in the year ended March 31 was of ₹100 denomination, while counterfeit notes of ₹2,000 and ₹500 put together was at 29% of the total pieces, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) FY18 annual report. In the previous year, ₹500 notes were the most counterfeited, accounting for 41% of all fake currencies detected.

The withdrawal of the ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes in November 2016, however, seem to have put the brakes on counterfeiters, with detection of fake notes dropping 31% in the year ended March 31 from the previous year, the annual report said. However, there was an increase of 35% in counterfeit notes detected of ₹100 nomination from a year earlier.

There was also a 154% surge in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of ₹50, RBI said in its annual report, indicating forgers have started targeting lower-denomination notes post demonetization.

For the series of banknotes in the denominations of ₹500 and ₹2,000 introduced after demonetization, counterfeit notes detected during 2017-18 jumped to 9,892 and 17,929, respectively, from 199 and 638 in the previous year.

State Bank of India (SBI), in its August 29 research report Ecowrap, said that RBI’S promise that MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has expressed concerns over banks not adhering to the regulator’s income recognition and asset classification norms (IRAC) and reporting divergences in bad loan numbers.

According to the central bank, while there may be instances of information asymmetry between the supervisor and other stakeholders, bad loan divergence should not arise from lack of adherence to regulatory guidelines.

new currency notes of ₹200 and ₹500 (post-demonetization) are more secure and less prone to counterfeiting is not entirely correct.

“There was a noticeable increase in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of new ₹500 (by 4178%) and ₹2,000 (by 2710%). Given the current trends, it is expected that the number of counterfeit notes in the denomination of ₹500 (new) and ₹2,000 may increase further and Rbi/banks/public should pay more attention to that,” the report said.

During 2017-18, 522,783 pieces of counterfeit notes were detected in the banking system, of which 63.9% were detected by banks and the rest by the central bank.