The Reserve Bank of India on 5th August 2022, has issued a statement on developmental and regulatory policies which sets out various developmental and regulatory policy measures relating to regulation and supervision, financial markets and payment and settlement systems.
Key highlights from various regulatory policies:
- RBI has included credit information companies (CICs) under the reserve bank integrated ombudsman scheme and extended the internal ombudsman mechanism. The Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) 2021, covers Regulated Entities (REs) such as scheduled commercial banks including urban cooperative banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and non-scheduled primary co-operative banks with a deposit size of ₹50 crore and above. In order to make the RB-IOS more broad based, it has been decided to bring Credit Information Companies (CICs) also under the ambit of RB-IOS 2021. This will provide a cost free alternate redress mechanism to customers of REs for grievances against CICs. Further, with a view to strengthen the internal grievance redress of the CICs and to make it more efficient, it has also been decided to bring the CICs under the Internal Ombudsman (IO) framework.
- RBI proposes to issue draft Reserve Bank of India (Managing Risks and Code of Conduct in Outsourcing of Financial Services) Directions, 2022, for public comments shortly. The scope of these Directions is being expanded to also include RRBs, Local Area Banks (LABs), All India Financial Institutions, Credit Information Companies, and non-scheduled Payments Banks.
- With a view to strengthen the role of Standalone Primary Dealers (SPD) as market makers, on a par with banks operating primary dealer business, it is proposed to enable SPDs to offer all foreign exchange market-making facilities as currently permitted to Category-I Authorised Dealers, subject to prudential guidelines. This measure would give forex customers a broader spectrum of market-makers in managing their currency risk, thereby adding breadth to the forex market in India.
- Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), owned and operated by NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd. (NBBL), has transformed the bill payment experience in the country. BBPS offers an interoperable platform for standardised bill payment experience, centralised customer grievance redress mechanism, uniform customer convenience fee, etc. Over 20,000 billers have been onboarded on the system and more than eight crore transactions are processed on a monthly basis. BBPS is currently accessible only for residents in India. To facilitate Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) undertake utility, education and other bill payments on behalf of their families in India, it is proposed to enable BBPS to accept cross-border inward payments. This will also benefit payment of bills of any biller onboarded on the BBPS platform in an interoperable manner. Necessary instructions will be issued shortly.
