business

Updated: Mar 16, 2020 16:47 IST

Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday the moratorium on Yes Bank will be lifted on Wednesday at 6pm as he stressed there was swift and strong action by RBI and the government to shore up the private lender.

Das reiterated depositors’ money is absolutely safe and that there is no need for panic withdrawal.

“I would like to convey to the depositors of Yes Bank, through you, that their money is completely safe and there is nothing to worry. There is no reason for any undue worry,” Das said during a press conference.

“The underlying theme on which the scheme is based is to protect the depositors’ interest,” he said.

Das also said that the new Yes Bank board will take on March 26.

The hurriedly called press conference comes amid widespread call for a rate cut following similar steps by the world’s leading central banks. The US Federal Reserve has cut the policy rates to near-zero levels in a span of 10 days.

The Bank of England has also slashed the rates by 50 basis points, and so did the European Central Bank.

If a rate cut is announced, this will be first inter-meeting rate reduction since the monetary policy committee was instituted in February 2016.

According to PTI, many analysts have said RBI has legroom to cut rates to the tune of 65 bps by June. Some like Barclays and BofA have also spoken about the likelihood of an inter-meeting cut before the April 3 policy meeting, PTI reported.

The central bank has cut the policy rates by a cumulative 135 bps to a nine-year low of 5.15% between February and October 2019.

More than 6000 people have been killed, most of them in China since the coronavirus outbreak began in China late last year. The pandemic has ebbed in China but the epicentre has moved to Europe now with Italy and Spain being the worst-hit, forcing both the nations to go on complete lock-down.

Markets have been in a free-fall over the past week over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on global growth.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex dropped over 2000 points and the NSE Nifty tanked below the 9300 level on Monday. Sensex plummeted 3473.14 points or 9.24% and Nifty lost 1034.25 points or 9.41%.