FM bats for a common demat account

The move is expected to benefit investors.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday asked regulators to expeditiously introduce a common demat account for financial assets, a move that is expected to benefit investors.      Chairing the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting, attended by all financial regulators, Chidambaram also said inter-regulatory issues should be resolved in a time bound manner by the FSDC Sub-Committee.

“Priority should be accorded to the steps such as common demat account for financial assets, which will add considerable benefits to the consumers,” he said. Although the deceleration in growth had been arrested in the second quarter of 2013-14, inflationary pressures and structural bottlenecks were some of the factors weighing down the growth process, Chidambaram said. He stressed upon the need for the government and the financial sector regulators to ensure robust growth and manage vulnerabilities.

Last month, the government lowered the 2012-13 economic growth estimate to decade low of 4.5 per cent from 5 per cent. The growth in the first half of the current fiscal is estimated at 4.6 per cent.      FSDC has taken up many initiatives to further develop the Indian financial sector, like the development of the Corporate Debt market, launch of infrastructure debt funds (IDFs) and issue of new FPI regulations.

 

It has also pursued the implementation of the report of the FSLRC with the intention that the financial sector stands on sound legal foundations and remains well-regulated, efficient and internationally competitive.

 

The Council, as per the Finance Ministry statement, made an assessment of the emerging issues relating to financial stability, including preparedness for the impact of US tapering, liquidity crunch and re-pricing of risk.

 

It said the Council noted the deterioration in the asset quality of banks and its impact on capital adequacy ratios.

 

It reviewed the steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank to revitalise the distressed assets and assessed the additional capital requirements of banks under the Basel III norms. The Council apprised of certain management and governance related issues of banks and discussed further remedial measures.

 

The 9th FSDC was attended by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan; Sebi Chairman U K Sinha; Irda Chairman T S Vijayan; FMC Chairman Ramesh Abhishek and PFRDA Chairman Anup Wadhawan, besides other senior officials.