The Impressive TimesNew Delhi/Mumbai, June 10 – Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, chaired the 29th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in Mumbai today. The meeting focused on enhancing financial sector responsiveness, cybersecurity, and improving citizen-centric financial processes.
Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Choudhary, and key regulators from RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, and other financial bodies participated in the discussions.
One of the key directives from the Finance Minister was to accelerate the refund of unclaimed assets—such as dormant bank deposits, unpaid dividends, and lapsed insurance and pension funds—through special district-level outreach camps. These camps will be jointly conducted by regulatory bodies including RBI, SEBI, MCA, IRDAI, and PFRDA.
“The rightful owners must receive their unclaimed money swiftly. The interests of ordinary citizens must remain central,” Smt. Sitharaman emphasised, urging departments to work in coordinated fashion to make the process seamless and transparent.
The Council deliberated extensively on macro-financial stability, the global economic landscape, and emerging risks. The need to enhance India’s financial system resilience, especially in the face of cyber threats, was also discussed. The meeting reviewed recommendations from the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) 2024-25 and considered a sector-specific cybersecurity strategy.
Among the top agenda items were:
Creating an agile regulatory framework for better responsiveness
Digitisation and simplification of the KYC process, including common norms across sectors and digital onboarding for NRIs, PIOs, and OCIs
Strategies to reduce unclaimed assets and streamline refund mechanisms
Boosting the investment ratio and improving access to factoring services
Expanding and refining the Account Aggregator network
Smt. Sitharaman called for proactive steps to make KYC processes user-friendly and hassle-free, reinforcing the government’s commitment to financial inclusion and digital empowerment.
The meeting also acknowledged progress made by the FSDC Sub-Committee chaired by the RBI Governor and reviewed implementation of past FSDC decisions.
Key attendees included Sanjay Malhotra, RBI Governor; Finance Secretary Ajay Seth; Secretaries of Financial Services, Corporate Affairs, and Revenue; Chief Economic Adviser Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran; and heads of SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, IBBI, and CERT-In, among others.
The Council resolved to continue strengthening inter-regulatory coordination for holistic development of India’s financial sector while safeguarding its stability and integrity.
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