RBI to implement FSLRC suggestions on consumer protection

The Reserve Bank today said it will implement the FSLRC's recommendations on consumer protection and will soon come out with consolidated instructions relating to consumer services in the financial sector.

"It is proposed to implement the following recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) pertaining to consumer protection and capacity building," the RBI said in its Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2013-14.

It said the RBI will set up a committee to examine capacity building in the financial market.

"A committee will be set up by the RBI to examine capacity building, including basic and job-specific knowledge requirements and examine whether a system of formal certificationis warranted for certain job descriptions within the RBI and in the financial entities and market segments regulated by it," it said.

The RBI will examine its own public-facing services and institute time-bound response guidelines were feasible and not already in place. Such guidelines will be placed on the RBI website by January 2014.

The implementation of the non-legislative recommendations of the FSLRC was discussed at a meeting of financial sector regulators chaired by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

It was decided at the meeting that all regulators would finalise the principles relating to regulatory governance, transparency and operational efficiency for implementation of the FSLRC recommendations.

The Commission, headed by former Justice B N Srikrishna, had presented its report to the government in March and suggested merging financial sector regulators such as Sebi and Irda into a Unified Financial Agency (UFA) and restricting the role of RBI to regulating banks and managing monetary policy.

Under the regulatory architecture proposed by the Commission, Sebi, Forward Markets Commission, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) should be merged into the UFA.

The Commission proposed setting up seven agencies -- RBI, UFA, Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal, FSDC, Resolution Corporation, Financial Redressal Agency and Public Debt Management Agency -- to manage the financial sector.