State Bank of India, Mumbai main branch has launched sale of retail gold in 10 and 5 gms packing from Wednesday, April 21, 1999. The launching of retail sale was done by AK Batra, CGM of Mumbai circle (since promoted as Dy. Managing Director).

RBI Repos

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not recieved any applications for the 4-day 6.00 per cent fixed rate repos held on April 22, 1999.

RBI's manual on web

RBI has released the exchange control manual, which is updated till December 1998, on its web-site (www.rbi.org.in). The ADMA circulars issued since January 1999 are also avaolable on the website. For the first time, RBI has also made available on the website all the forms required for exchange control purposes. The exchange control manual can be directly accessed through www.ecm.rbi.org.in. The ADMA/GP circulars as well as forms issued since January 1999 are also seperately available on the RBI website under `notifications' and `forms'respectively.

Visa Cash Specifications released

Visa international has published the Visa Cash Electronic Purse Specifications (VCEPS) based on the Common Electronic Purse Specifications (CEPS). The effort has been supported by organisations representing more than 90 per cent of the world's electronic purse cards and has created a de-facto global industry standard for virtually all electronic purse products. CEPS defines the requirements, functions and specifications needed by an organisation to implement a globally inter-operable electronic purse program and includes optional features and functions. VCEPS builds upon CEPS, describing how Visa cash differentiates itself from other electronic purse schemes by specifying certain of these features and functions.