securities, a screen based anonymous order matching system has been operationalised. ninth, the banking system has also witnessed greater levels of transparency and standards of disclosure with greater volume of information being disclosed as notes on accounts in their balance sheets. salient among these include major profitability and financial ratios, details of capital structures, as well as movements in non - performing loans, movements in provisions, advances to sensitive sectors, to mention a few. the range of disclosures has gradually been expanded over the years to promote market discipline. tenth, corporate governance in banks has improved substantially over the years. a consultative group was constituted to explore the issue in all its facets in accordance with best extant practices. based on its recommendations, in june 2002, banks were advised to adopt and implement appropriate governance practices. as part of its efforts to promote sound corporate governance, the rbi has been focusing on ensuring'fit and proper'owners and directors of the bank and laying stress on diversified ownership. banks have been advised to ensure that a nomination committee screens the nominated and elected directors to satisfy the'fit and proper'criteria. iii. features of reforms the unique features of the progress in financial sector reforms may be of some interest to this audience. first, financial sector reforms were undertaken early in the reform cycle. second, the reforms process was not driven by any banking crisis, nor was it the outcome of any external support package. third, the design of the reforms was crafted through domestic expertise, taking on board the international experiences in this respect. fourth, the reforms were carefully sequenced in respect to instruments and objectives. thus, prudential norms and supervisory strengthening were introduced early in the reform cycle, followed by interest rate deregulation and gradually lowering of statutory preemptions. the more complex aspects of legal and accounting measures were ushered in subsequently when the basic tenets of the reforms were already in place. a unique feature of the reform of public sector banks, which dominated the indian banking sector, was the process of financial restructuring. banks were recapitalised by the government to meet prudential norms through recapitalisation bonds. the mechanism of hiving off bad loans to a separate government asset management company was not considered appropriate in view of the moral hazard. the subsequent divestment of equity and offer to private shareholders was undertaken through a public offer and not by sale to strategic investors. consequently, all the public sector banks, which issued shares to private shareholders, have been listed on the exchanges and

, a money that could not be taxed or tracked. nick szabo attempted to create bit - gold which will be difficult to solve ( mine ) and so will have value ; he tried to create a puzzle of solving cryptographic equation which was further refined by the hands of satoshi nakamoto in bitcoins. voila! you now have a digital currency ; not created by authorities ; more and more people have accepted it. bitcoins have acquired value ; they are being used for settling varieties of economic transactions ; people are using them as investments and store of value. so ‘ currency ’ is being eliminated. blockchain, the foundation for bitcoins like innovations, is touted to be the death knell of currency. i believe its potential is being overstated. we can see that in these types of solutions for virtual currency, there is no central bank or monetary authority. they pose potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks. vcs being in digital form are stored in digital / electronic media ; are prone to losses arising out of hacking, loss of password, compromise of access credentials, malware attack, etc. payments by vcs are on a peer - to - peer basis. no established framework for recourse to customer problems / disputes / charge backs, etc. is feasible. there is underlying or backing of any asset for vcs. value seems to be a matter of speculation. legal status is definitely not there. while this is a purported objective of a vc, it puts a natural limit for its progression as i will explain in a moment. and finally, the usage of vcs for illicit and illegal activities has been reported as uncomfortably large. my arguments against these vcs stem from two key elements viz., confidence and anonymity. a ‘ currency ’ should be able to sustain these two elements for ever ; it will impair its exalted status once, either of these elements gets affected. the ‘ confidence ’ in bitcoins or for that matter any virtual currency based on blockchain or any other technology is also limited to its initial rounds and circles only ; the initial rounds are always filled with adventurists and risk seekers ; the 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches moment masses get in, the risk - avoiders get in, they will need greater ‘ confidence ’ for acceptance and that can come only if an ‘ authority ’ issues it. as regards ‘ anonymity ’, the