Credit Creation and Monetary Policy PDF
Credit Creation and Monetary Policy PDF
Credit Creation and Monetary Policy PDF
Discipline Courses-I
Semester-I
Paper I: Principales of Economics (POE)
Unit-III
Lesson: Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Lesson Developer: Rakhi Arora and Vaishali Kapoor
College/Department: RajdhaniCollege, University of Delhi
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Table of Contents
1. Learning outcomes
2. Introduction
3. Credit Creation
b. Reserves
e. Money multiplier
4. Monetary policy
b. Reserve requirement
d. Bank rate
5. Summary
6. Exercises
7. Glossary
8. References
Learning outcomes
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to:-
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
INTRODUCTION
Banks are the financial intermediaries in the economy whose primary task is the acceptance
of deposits and provisioning of loans. The questions that usually come to one’s mind is-how
all banks operate; who controls all the banks;whatquantum of accepted deposits is loaned
out; who decides all that; how does it impact economy?
Reserve Bank of India, RBI is an apex bank controlling all the operations of all the
commercial banks in the economy. RBI controls money supply & credit availability in the
economy. After the recession of 2008, RBI has been consistently loweringCRR& repo rate.
Why does RBI takesuch steps? The answer to this is, RBI injects money in the system but
one likes to know how does it materialize that?
This chapter is an attempt to answer all the above stated questions. It focuses on credit
creation by RBI in the economy in Section 1and the usage of different macroeconomic
tools to inject or eject money from the economy in Section 2.
CREDIT CREATION
Commercial banks are different from other financial institutions as they have the ability to
create credit in the economy. They accept deposits from public- a part of which is loaned
out and the remaining is conserved as deposits.Banks are in reality capable of providing
more loans than the amount of cash held by them. The questions that needtobe answered
are- what proportion of the total deposits of the bank is to be given as loans and what ratio
is to be preserved as cash by the bank; how can banks expand loans by more than the
quantity of cash they have; what mechanism is at work?
We would try to study the mechanism of credit creation in an economy in this section.
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, controls money supply in India in two ways.
Firstly, RBI prints money and directly controls money supply in the economy and
Secondly, RBI uses monetary policy as a tool to control money supply indirectly.
Along with the Central Bank, it also depends on the Depository Institutions (i.e.)
Commercial banks and public thatholds money either as cash at hand or deposits in bank.
2006 peace Nobel Prize winner M.Yunus, in his effort to create economic & social development
from below, proclaims that credit is directly instrumental to economic development, poverty
reduction and improved welfare of all citizens, and hence credit should be a human right. Yunus
considers right to credit to be moral one, based on the fact that without access to opportunities
that credit can provide there is little chancethat the poor will be able to improve their position.
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Reserve Bank of India comprises oftwodepartments viz. Issue Department & Banking
Department. Issue Department relates to the sole function of currency management.
Banking Department deals with rest of the banks in the country and provides an impact of
all functions of the Reserve Bank.
(Rs. Thousands)
Liabilities Assets
11022,063,648
circulation
11034,734,496 GOI Rupee securities 10,464,300
Total Notes
Issued
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On the right hand side of the balance sheet arethe Reserve Bank’s assets- what it owns.
Its assets comprise of gold coins & bullion, foreign securities, rupee coins, government
securities & commercial paper. On the left hand side is RBI’s liabilities- what it owes to
others. Currency issued by RBI – either held by public or in the Banking Department is a
debt obligation of the RBI.
Likewise, in Banking Department’s balance sheet, assets are securities purchased &
investments made and notes held by it (Rs. 89,169 as shown in balance sheet of Issue
department). Liabilities comprise of reserve deposits. These reserve deposits are liabilities
of Reserve Bank and assets of commercial banks as these are deposit accounts at Reserve
Bank held by commercial banks.
For simplification, from hereon we will assume no difference between Banking and Issue
department and combined balance sheet will be considered for the two departments. Let us
set the following example that would be applied to almost any currency and Central bank.
Reserve deposits
200 Gold 100
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*The above balance sheet contains selected items, which would be required for further
analysis.
The sum of reservedeposits and currency (including both currency held by public and vault
cash held by banks) is called as the monetary base or also known as high-powered money
denoted by H.
H = C+R……………………….…………….(1)
Where,
H is high-powered money
C is currency
R is Reserve deposits
Next, consider the balance sheets of all commercial banks in the private sector. Supposeall
banks are combined together and their consolidated balance sheet looks like the following:-
Loan 2700
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Banksassets consist of vault cash & reserve deposits both of which appeared as liabilities on
central banks balance sheets plus loans that banks have extended to the public. Banks
liabilities consist of deposit accepted from the public. The money you deposit in your bank
account is your asset while a liability for the particular bank.
RESERVES
Out of total deposits of Rs.3000, banks kept Rs.200 as reserve deposits &Rs.100 as vault
cash to meet the demands for withdrawals by depositors. This is known as bank reserves.
It is 10 % of the total deposits. How one fixes this reserved deposit ratio of 0.10
(=300/3000)?
Why don’t banks keep entire deposits as reserves?Depositors can write cheques of the
amount equivalent to their deposit money or withdraw the entire deposit money. If banks
reserve the entire deposit money, banks are said to be following 100% reserve banking.
But banks anticipate the withdrawal demand by all sorts of depositors and then what
amount would be held as reserve deposits is decided. For example, there are three
depositors viz.A,B& C and each havethesame amount of deposits in their respective
accounts. A withdraws his entire salary every month, B withdraws half of his salary &C
withdraws none. In this case, Banks would decide 0.50as reserve deposit ratio so as to
meet the requirement of their depositors. In this case, a generalization for all customers is
made & then rest of the money is lent out by banks.
Bank Runs
If suppose there is a spread of rumor that a bank would not be able to honor cash
requirement of their depositors; then all depositors would rush to the bank so that they do
not lose on their money. They do not want to lose on their money. Since this is known as
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run on banks follow fractional reserve banking system; they would not be able to actually
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honor all withdrawal requirements. Final outcome would be panic in the economy. Bank
runs were evident at the time of great depression 1929 & Great Recession 2008.
Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
As in our example, reserve deposit ratio is 0.1, which is less than 1; this is known as
fractional reserve banking system.Every bank follows fractional reserve banking deposit
because keeping 100 % of their deposits would mean they perform a function of safe vault
and would earn no profit or a very low profit of central bank given them some interest rate
on such reserve deposits. And in an economy such reserve deposit ratios are set by central
bank of an economy.
Suppose there are only private banks is an economy that follows fractional reserve banking
system with reserve deposit ratio of 0.10. Suppose one of the banks, i.e.bank A accepts
deposit equivalent to Rs. 100 & keeping reserves of 10 %; bank loans out the rest.
Therefore, Bank A’sBalance Sheet would look like the following:
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
90
Now this Rs.90, which is loaned out to anybody in the non-bank public is deposited in
borrower’s bank, say, bank B.
Bank B’s balance sheet after accepting deposit and lending out money to public after
keeping reserves would appear like the one below:
Loan 81
This process of credit expansion will continue, as now this Rs.81 would be deposited in next
borrower’s bank & so on. Let’stry to figure out what will be the amount of deposits & loans
in the end?
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: : : :
Total 1000 100 900
+0.4(0.4x0.9x100)+…………)
= Rs.1000
= (90+0.9x90) +0.9(0.9x90)
= 900
=Rs. 100
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One bank in a multi-bank system cannot produce a large multiple expansion of deposits
based on an original accretions of each when other banks do not also expand their deposits.
In the banking system in this example, a multiple increase in deposit money is created
when all banks with excess reserves (i.e. money left after keeping a required reserve ratio
of 0.1) expand their deposits in step with each other.
In the above setup, the implicit assumption was that depositor does not wish to hold cash
out of the deposits. But in reality, public wishes to hold a proportion of cash, say, equal to
10 percent of the size of its bank deposits. How does this impact the process of credit
creation?
As we already know, high powered money, is sum of currency & reserves (R)
H = C+R ……………………………………………………….(1)
which means, that total cash is either held by the banks or the public. Let required reserve
deposit ratio be r. Then,
R=rD…..…………………………………………………….(2)
Where,
C = bD ………………………………………………………….(3)
H = bD+rD
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
D= H/b+r ………..…………….…………………………………(4)
In Equation (4) deposit multiplier becomes1/b+r (in case of cash drain), which is to be
compared to previous deposit multiplier, 1/r where cash deposit ratio was assumed zero. In
equation (4) if cash deposit ratio is assumed to be ZERO, deposit multiplier again becomes
1/r. A positive value of b lowers the increase in deposits, as it is cash drained out of
expansion process.
MONEY MULTIPLIER
M = C+D …………………………………………………………….(5)
M=bD+D{from (3)}
M=D(1+b)
M= (1+b) / (b+rH)
1+𝑏
Where𝑏+𝑟 is the money multiplier.
𝑀3 Rs .71,986.8 billion
So Money Multiplier, m= = = 5.0693(approx.) 13
𝑀0 Rs .14,200.5 billion
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The following graph shows the money multiplier for the period April 2008 to April
Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
The size of the money multiplier is greater, the smaller is the banks reserve deposit ratio,r
and the smaller is the cash deposit ratio, b. Both b & r are the drains in the deposit or credit
expansion process.
MONETARY POLICY
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
Monetary Policy is the policy of the Central bank of an economy that deals with the quantity
of money to be supplied in the economy.Monetary Policy is an important tool to affect macro
economy. Money supply has a direct one to one relationship with prices in the economy
(result of quantity theory of money), which has an implication that, if Central Bank wishes
to contain inflation rate in the economy, it can be achieved with the help of changing the
monetary base of the economy.One of the primary objectives of monetary policy is to
contain inflation rate.
Considering money supply and money demand as a function of interest rates, money
demand slopes downward to the right while money supply is vertical. Money demand is
negatively related to the interest rate as was observed is last chapter. Money supply is
determined by central banks decision of high – powered money so it is fixed at some given
level, irrespective of interest rates. For this consider the following figure.
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
If Central Bank decides to increase the money supply in the economy; then m shifts to the
right from m0 to m1 and equilibrium interest falls from ro to r1 as shown in the above
figure.
This fall in interest rate induces investment in the economy. From our knowledge from
chapter on National Income Accounting; investment is a part of National Income is known.
So as money supply in an economy expands, interest rate falls which induces investment in
the economy and henceforth national income increases. So this could be the second
objective of Monetary Policy.
As discussed in the last section of money multiplier, money supply is determined by three
factors: H (High powered Money), r (reserve deposit-ratio) and b (cash deposit ratio).
Central bank can change the monetary base of the economy or could change the
requirement for reserve deposit.
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Central banks control money supply in the economy through the following policy
instruments:-
If RBI purchases securities from private investors, then theygetcurrency or deposit with
them as a result of this transaction, which means that it increases the monetary base and
thus the money supply. This purchase of assets is known as open market purchase.
Thesale of assets to the public by the Central bank is called as the open market sale. It
reduces the monetary base and the money supply. Open market purchases and sales
collectively are called as open –market operations.
For example, if RBI purchases assets worth Rs.100cr. then monetary base increases by
Rs.100 cr. Assuming a money multiplier of 10, total money supply increases by Rs.1000cr.
in the economy due to RBI’s open market purchases.
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Panel 1:
Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs.
Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 100 Total 5 Total 5
Panel 2 :
Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities RS. Assets Rs.
Panel 3 :
Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs. Liabilities Rs. Assets Rs.
Let us look at Table1 to understand how open market operations affect money supply in the
economy. In panel 1,Central bank hasRs.100 of government securities. Its liabilities
consist of Rs.20 of deposits and Rs.80 of currency. With required reserve ratio of 0.2, Rs.20
of reserves can support Rs. 100 (=20/0.2) of deposits in commercial banks. Panel 1 also
shows Shyam’s financial position.
Now imagine that central bank decides to make open market sale of securities worth Rs. 5
to private investor Shyam. Shyamwrites a cheque to the Central bank to complete this
transaction. Central bank’s reserves are reduced byRs. 5. (& reserves of commercial banks
too). Such changes are shown in Panel 2.
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The story doesnot end here. Since reserves are reduced to Rs.15 which now could support
deposits of Rs.75 (=15/0.2), the final equilibrium of loans have been reduced to
Rs.60.Banks don’t call in loans but rather loans and deposits would be reduced by slowing
down the rate of new lending as old loans come due and are paid off. Deposits have
changed by Rs.25(from Rs.100 to Rs.75). In this example, change in money (Rs25) is
equal to Money multiplier (5) times the change the reserves (Rs.5). Money supply defined
by sum of deposits and currency decreased from Rs.100 to Rs.155.
Changes in the reserves (discussed in the last section) bring changes in the money supply.
When any Central bank changes the required reserve ratio in the economy, money
multiplier changes and henceforth money supply changes.
Suppose central bank announces that required reserve ratio is reduced from 20 percent to
12.5 percent. The changes in the money supplies are shown in table2.
Initially, when required reserve ratio is 20%, the balance sheets of central bank and
commercial banks are shown in Panel 1 in Table 2. When required reserve ratio is lowered
to 12.5%, then out of Rs.500 of deposits only Rs.62.5 might be kept as reserves and extra
Rs.37.5 must be lent out which again creates deposits of Rs.37.5 times the money
multiplier (8) i.e. deposits of Rs. 300 more are created.
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So new deposits that could be supported with 12.5% required reserve ratio becomes Rs.800
and reserves equal 12.5% of deposits (Rs.800) i.e.Rs.100. Money supply has increased
from Rs.600 (Rs.100 currency R.500 deposits) to Rs.900 (Rs.100 currency and Rs.800 of
deposits).
Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with the
RBI(Central bank of India). Statutory liquidity ratio, SLR refers to the amount that
commercial bank requires to maintain in the form of gold or govt. securities before
providing credit to customers.
Bank Rate
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Bank rate, also referred as Discount rate, is the rate of interest, which a central bank
charges on the loans that it advances to the commercial bank. When banks borrow, money
supply increases. Central banks’ lending of money to banks is called discount window
lending. The higher the discount rate, the higher the cost of borrowing and the lesser the
borrowings that the banks would want to do. If central bank wants to curtail the growth of
money supply, it can raise the discount rate and discourage banks from borrowing from it,
restricting the growth of reserves (and ultimately deposits).
CRR : 4%
SLR : 23%
Repo is a repurchase agreement, is the sale of securities to central bank together with an
agreement for the commercial banks to buy back the securities at a later date. The
repurchase price should be greater than the original sale price, the difference effectively
representing interest is called repo rate. Reverse repo is the sale of securities by commercial
banks together with an agreement for the central bank to buy back securities at a later
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date. An increase in reverse repo rate can prompt banks to park more funds with the central
bank to earn higher return on idle cash. It is also a tool, which can be used by the central
bank to drain excess money out of banking system.
SUMMARY
Banks create money by making loans. When a bank makes a loan to a customer, it
creates a deposit in that customer’s account. This deposit becomes part of money
supply. Banks can create money only when they have excess reserves and credit
creation process is successful only when all banks loan out their excess reserves.
Money supply in the economy is determined by monetary base times the money
multiplier. Money multiplier is equal to 1/ required reserve ratio.
Central bank pursues monetary policy and controls money supply in the economy.
Central banks can either monetary base or the multiplier by its policies.
Central banks have following tools to control the money supply: (1) through Open
Market Operations (the buying and selling of already existing government
securities); (2) by changing the required reserve ratio( reducing this ratio increases
multiplier); (3) by changing discount rate (raising discount rate decreases money
supply) and (4) by changing repo and reverse repo rate.
EXERCISES
Q2. Decide on whether RBI has taken correct step as per the requirement or not? What
would be the outcome?
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b. During period of rapid real growth, RBI should inject money in the economy.
Q2. What are the ways in which a central bank can influence the money supply?
Q3. What would happen to money supply if general public chose to hold (a) no cash, (b)
no bank deposits?
Q4. What is money multiplier? What all factors determine its value?
Numericals
Reserves 200
Total 350 Total 350
Calculate:
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GLOSSARY
Bank Reserves: Liquid assets held by banks to the demands for withdraws by
depositors are called Bank reserves.
Reserves deposits ratio: Fraction of banks outstanding deposits that is kept as
reserves is known as reserve Deposits ratio.
Fractional Reserve Banking: If reserve deposit ratio is less than 1 ie reserves are a
fraction of deposits then such a banking system is known as fractional reserve
banking.
Money Multiplier:Money multiplier is the multiple by which the total supply of money
can increase for every unit increase in reserves. The money multiplier is equal to 1/
required reserve ratio.
Open market Operations: If central bank purchases from or sells to, private investors
in the economy; money supply increase or decreases, respectively. These open
market purchases and sale collectively is known as open market operations.
Cash Reserve Ratio: Cash Reserve Ratio is the amount of funds that the banks have
to keep with central bank
Statuary Liquidity Ratio: Statutory liquidity ratio refers to amount that commercial
bank requires to maintain in form of gold or govt. securities before providing credit
to customers.
Repo Rate: Repo (Repurchase) rate is the rate at which the RBI lends shot-term
money to the banks.
Reserve Repo Rate:Reverse Repo rate is the rate at which banks park their short-
term excess liquidity with the RBI.
Bank Rate:Bank rate is the rate of interest which a central bank charges on the loans
and advances to a commercial bank.
REFERENCES
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Credit Creation and Monetary Policy
3. www.epw.in
4. www.rbi.org
5. MarekHudon, Should Access to Credit Be a Right?, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 84, No.
1 (Jan., 2009), pp. 17-28
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