Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of finance, asked departments and regulators to speed up the process of returning unclaimed amounts in the financial sector, such as bank deposits, dividends, shares, post office accounts, insurance, and pension funds, to their rightful owners.
The Finance Minister stated during the 29th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) that in order to guarantee the prompt and smooth return of these assets to their legitimate owners, special district-level camps must be organized.
“Banks, pension agencies, insurance companies, the RBI, SEBI, the MCA, the PFRDA, and the IRDA, among others, will coordinate this push. The IEPFA is in charge of managing unclaimed shares and dividends, the IRDAI is in charge of unclaimed insurance and pension money, and the PFRDA is in charge of unclaimed bank deposits,” she stated.
In order to guarantee that citizens have a smooth experience with KYC procedures throughout the banking sector, the Finance Minister also urged the Council to adopt proactive measures.
She advocated for the establishment of uniform KYC standards, as well as the streamlining and digitization of the KYC procedure, including digital onboarding for NRIs, including PIOs and OCIs, in the Indian stocks market.
The FSDC discussed macrofinancial stability challenges and India’s readiness to address them. The FSDC examined enhancing the cyber resilience framework of the Indian financial sector through a cybersecurity strategy tailored to the financial sector in light of sectoral readiness, cybersecurity regulations, and the recommendations of the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) 2024–25.
The meeting also covered issues related to developing a plan for carrying out the previous decisions and the budget announcements.
These included analyzing patterns in funding flows as part of a plan to raise the investment ratio and putting in place a suitable framework for regulators to assess and improve the responsiveness of regulations and subsidiary directions.
In addition, the FSDC discussed the new developments in the macro-financial environment both at home and abroad and emphasized the importance of being watchful. The Council acknowledged the necessity of taking proactive measures to reduce any threats to financial stability while implementing sufficient protections for the resilience of the financial system. For the financial sector’s overall growth, the participants agreed to improve inter-regulatory coordination.
The RBI Governor-chaired FSDC Sub-Committee’s activities and members’ actions regarding the FSDC’s outstanding previous judgments were also noted by the FSDC.
SEBI chief Tuhin Kant Pandey, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Financial Services Nagaraju Maddirala, and other senior Finance Ministry and IRDAI officials attended the FSDC meeting.