Sources in Fedai said that 14 nationalised banks have also been nominated to the managing committee which is the apex decision-making body at the self-regulatory body of authorised dealers. Fedai chairman BY Olkar was not available for comment.

Reserve Bank of India deputy governor YV Reddy had earlier in the month called for reviewing the role of the Fedai vis-a-vis the central bank and the authorised dealers. With the elections for filling up the slots of six foreign banks, three private banks and one financial institution, Fedai has kicked off restructuring of the organisation.

Prior to the elections, the Fedaimanagement committee was represented by nationalised banks and very few seats were available for the private and foreign banks. As a result, the new generation private sector banks, foreign banks had felt marginalised.

Among the other foreign banks that have been elected are ANZ Grindlays, Banque National de Paris, Hongkong and Shangai Banking Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank. Among the private banks Global Trust Bank, Vysya Bank and ICICI Bank have been elected.

The list of nominated nationalised banks includes State Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Punjab and Sindh Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. No elections were held for nationalised banks' slots.

The newly constituted management commitee is meeting next week to decide on the issue of service charges. The review follows a letter from the RBI to the body which asked it to consider abolishing fixed brokerage charges. This willintensify competition among ADs to provide better and cost-effective forex services.

The RBI directive to Fedai said: "...any indication of such charges even as advisory or guidance would tantamount to fixing a price and is thus a restrictive trade practice. This undermines competition. It was therefore recommended by the Regulation Review Authory that the practice of fixing any sort of charges should be totally dispensed with and the banks should have the complete freedom in this regard."

However, to avoid complaints, it would no doubt be necessary for the concerned bank to ensure that charges are not out of line with the average cost of providing services, RBI said.

The body currently fixes service charges to be paid to brokers for foreign exchange trades at Rs 1,500 per $1 million spot trade and Rs 2,000 per $1 million swap trade.