in the recent period. ( i ) senior citizens savings scheme government of india had launched the senior citizens savings scheme, 2004 ( scss ) with attractive interest rate exclusively for the benefit of senior citizens, with effect from august 2, 2004. scss accounts can be opened with post offices and agency banks. the salient features of the scheme are available in the rbi ’ s website. an important advice to senior citizens is to fill in form 15 g and 15h, if they do not attract tds provisions. ( ii ) senior citizen friendly measures – investment in government securities several friendly measures for senior citizens have been incorporated in the government securities act, 2006 ( act ) and the government securities regulations, 2007 ( regulations ), which have come into force with effect from december 1, 2007. these include • automatic redemption facility for government securities, including relief / savings bond. • simplified procedure in the event of death of holder. • ability to pledge or borrow against such securities. • nomination is permitted. ( iii ) facilities for pensioners almost all the pensioners, by virtue of the retirement age fixed by the government, are senior citizens. the following facilities, among other, are available to pensioners : • credit of pension to pensioners ’ accounts on last 4 days of month so that the pensioner can draw pension on the 1st day of the next month itself. • joint account with spouse allowed. • pension slips to be issued at first time and thereafter whenever there is a change. • for incapacitated pensioners – branch to depute an officer to the residence of the pensioner for getting / certifying the life certificate. • banks to access the government website and effect payment of revised dearness relief without waiting for rbi instructions. • banks to accept nominations furnished by pensioners in form “ a ” or “ b ” in respect of payment of arrears of pension of the deceased pensioner. rbi has issued necessary instructions to all the banks disbursing pension to ensure that the pensioners get the best possible customer service. most of the agency banks have since set up centralised pension processing centres ( cppcs ) which will be responsible for receipt of the pension payment orders ( ppos ), calculation of pension / dearness relief etc. and crediting the amount directly to the pensioners ’ accounts through this system. ( iv ) deposit scheme for senior citizens banks have been permitted to formulate, with the approval of their boards, fixed deposit schemes specifically for

macroprudential tools contained in the ssm regulation are thus specific aspects of the financial stability mandate of the ecb, which is based on the specific authorisation in article 127 ( 6 ) of the tfeu. neither the ssm regulation in general, however, nor article 5 in particular confers a general competence on the ecb in the fields of financial stability and macroprudential policy. democracy, independence and financial stability when we interpret the competences of public institutions we are essentially discussing the limits of their powers. as with any discussion on public powers, the aspect of legitimacy also needs to be considered. in the field of financial stability and macroprudential policies, a multitude of institutions are involved, such as parliaments, eu political institutions, national governments, and expert bodies at both the european and the national level. some of these actors derive their legitimacy from their independent expertise, others from their democratic accountability. what role each of them should play in achieving financial stability is intimately connected with the source of their legitimacy. this brings me back to the first point of my speech : financial stability might be an objective less well suited to independent expertise - based bodies than a price stability objective. even though the treaty does not give a definition of price stability, it is an objective that is quantifiable. the ecb governing council aims to maintain inflation rates below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. putting a figure on price stability makes monetary policy more transparent and provides a clear and measurable yardstick against which european citizens can hold the ecb accountable. for financial stability no such clear yardstick exists. without clear objectives, however, it is much more difficult to measure the performance of independent, expertise - based institutions and hold them to account. 21 beyond that, the pursuit of financial stability often involves choices with stronger distributional implications. this is an additional argument in favour of the ultimate responsibility remaining in the political sphere. financial stability is thus a policy area where expert bodies and politically accountable institutions are called on to cooperate, with no one having exclusive responsibility. in this field, expert bodies with strong guarantees of independence, such as the ecb, might be better suited to “ contributing ” in an advisory capacity 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches while the “ ultimate responsibility ” is rather borne by institutions embedded in political accountability arrangements at the national level. otherwise political pressures to adopt one or the other stance in questions of financial stability might also threaten central bank independence.