Focus: GS-III Indian Economy, Economic Development
Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)
- Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India.
- It was established on 15 July 1978 under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961.
- Hence, it is a Statutory body.
- It was established for the purpose of providing insurance of deposits and guaranteeing of credit facilities.
- DICGC insures all bank deposits, such as saving, fixed, current, recurring deposit for up to the limit of Rs. 500,000 of each deposits in a bank.
How does DICGC manage deposit insurance?
- DICGC charges 10 paise per ₹ 100 of deposits held by a bank. The premium paid by the insured banks to the Corporation is paid by the banks and is not to be passed on to depositors.
- DICGC last revised the deposit insurance cover to ₹ 1 lakh on May 1, 1993, raising it from ₹ 30,000 since 1980. The protection cover of deposits in Indian banks through insurance is among the lowest in the world.
- The Damodaran Committee on ‘Customer Services in Banks’ (2011) had recommended a five-time increase in the cap to ₹5 lakh due to rising income levels and increasing size of individual bank deposits.
- Banks, including regional rural banks, local area banks, foreign banks with branches in India, and cooperative banks, are mandated to take deposit insurance cover with the DICGC.
- The DICGC does not deal directly with depositors.
- The RBI (or the Registrar), on directing that a bank be liquidated, appoints an official liquidator to oversee the winding up process.
- Under the DICGC Act, the liquidator is supposed to hand over a list of all the insured depositors (with their dues) to the DICGC within three months of taking charge.
- The DICGC is supposed to pay these dues within two months of receiving this list.
- In FY19, it took an average 1,425 days for the DICGC to receive and settle the first claims on a de-registered bank.
