RBI's customer grievance mechanism for NBFCs by month end

The Reserve Bank today said it will bring about a customer grievance redressal mechanism for non- banking finance companies (NBFCs) by this month end.
The move is aimed at enhancing the availability of such platforms across the financial services sector.
"With a view to providing customers of NBFCs with a cost-free and expeditious grievance redress mechanism, it has been decided to introduce an Ombudsman Scheme for NBFCs," RBI said in a statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies.
To begin with, the scheme will be operationalised by the end of this month for all deposit taking NBFCs, it said.
To be implemented in phased manner, it will cover all deposit taking NBFCs and those with customer interface having asset-size of Rs 100 crore and above.

The banking ombudsman scheme is working well, so it has been decided to have a scheme for NBFCs, RBI Deputy Governor B P Kanungo told reporters here.

To encourage customer participation in exchange traded currency derivatives, RBI has also proposed to merge the position limits across all foreign currency-INR pairs within a single limit of USD 100 million per user (both resident and non-resident) across all exchange traded currency derivatives, in all exchanges combined.
Currently, users are allowed to take position up to USD 15 million per exchange for USD-INR and USD 5 million per exchange for other currency pairs with the Indian Rupee (INR).

RBI said a circular to this effect will be released by the end of this month.
Among others, RBI said that the Financial Benchmarks India Pvt Ltd (FBIL) will take over the responsibility for standardising the valuation of government (issued both by central and states) securities which currently is being done by Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India (FIMMDA).
It said: "FBIL would also assume the responsibility for computation and dissemination of the daily reference rate for spot USD/INR and other major currencies against the rupee, which is currently done by RBI."
For currency management review, RBI said a task force is being formed to implement the recommendations of the two high-level inter-agency committees that were being set-up during the October 2016 policy review.

Further, RBI said it will discontinue the incentive scheme that is being provided to banks for installation of various machines to encourage technology absorption as the objective has now been achieved.
"It is observed that the purpose has largely been achieved. With a view to promote a less cash economy, the incentive schemes have been reviewed and it has been decided to discontinue going forward the incentives for installation of cash recycler machines (CRMs) and automated teller machines (ATMs).