Civil Services Prep

Prelims 2014 · Economy · Question 13

In the context of Indian economy, which of the following is/are the purpose/purposes of 'Statutory Reserve Requirements'? 1. To enable the Central Bank to control the amount of advances the banks can create. 2. To make the people's deposits with banks safe and liquid. 3. To prevent the commercial banks from making excessive profits. 4. To force the banks to have sufficient vault cash to meet their day-to-day requirements. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 only
  2. 1 and 2 only
  3. 2 and 3 only
  4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer

1 and 2 only

1. Correct. Statutory reserve requirements like CRR/SLR are monetary tools used by the central bank to limit or expand banks’ lending capacity and credit creation.

2. Correct. By requiring banks to keep a part of deposits in cash/liquid assets, these requirements improve liquidity and depositor safety to an extent.

3. Incorrect. Their purpose is not to stop commercial banks from earning excessive profits; profit control is not the objective of reserve requirements.

4. Incorrect. Banks do keep cash for daily withdrawals, but statutory reserve requirements are not primarily meant to ensure only day-to-day vault cash needs; they are broader regulatory/monetary requirements.

Therefore, statements 1 and 2 only are correct.