New Delhi: Macro-economic vulnerabilities have significantly reduced on the back of policy initiatives taken by the government, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and heads of financial sector regulators observed today.
Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) comprising regulatory bodies like the Reserve Bank and Sebi took stock of the prevailing domestic and global economic situation here at a meeting headed by Jaitley.
It was observed that "macro-economic vulnerabilities have been reduced significantly in recent months on the back of various policy initiative taken by the government, improvement in growth, declining inflation, recovery in external sector and political stability," said the Finance Ministry in a statement.
FSDC was also apprised of the progress made by the task force set up for creating of Resolution Corporation, Public Debt Management Agency, Financial
Data Management Centre and Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal.
During the meeting, Jaitley also launched a MIS portal for monitoring progress of regulators on implementation of the non-legislative recommendations of
Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC).
FSDC held a comprehensive review of action taken by members during the previous meetings. Today's was the 12th meeting. The last FSDC meeting was held in June last year.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, SEBI Chairman U K Sinha, insurance regulator IRDA Chairman T S Vijayan, pension regulator PFRDA Chairman Hemant G Contractor were among those present at the meeting.
The participants also discussed the progress made regarding implementation of decisions taken on development of corporate bond market and also discussed way forward for development of vibrant, deep and liquid bond market.
In the FSDC sub-committee meeting chaired by RBI Governor last month, capital requirements of the banks and measures to deepen bond markets were discussed.
The sub-committee had also deliberated upon matters related to account aggregation facility, capital requirement of banks and measures to deepen the credit default swap market.
The Reserve Bank informed FSDC about the measures being taken for timely detection of frauds in banks. The council took note of the developments and the suggestions made as regards building effective deterrence through expeditious action.
At the meeting, Finance Minister Jaitley emphasised that action on single demat account and uniform KYC norms be expedited and suitable regulation framework in this regard be put in place.
He said that the common account aggregation facility is envisaged to allow people to get details of their financial assets such as bank accounts, stocks, insurance policies, mutual funds and other financial instruments at one place.
Financial sector regulators also presented policy suggestions and ideas on promoting financial stability and overall financial sector development to the Finance Minister.
Later talking to reporters, Sebi Chief Sinha said there were discussions on bond market and banks, among others.
He said aggregator of financial assets mean is that "if you have something on the banking side, something on the mutual fund side, insurance side, that how you can get one common account statement for all these things in one place".
"So far we (Sebi) are concerned we have implemented and if they (other regulators) do it, then all of it can be combined together and then there will be one statement for all the financial assets," he added.
On roll out of uniform KYC norms, Sinha said that is being done by the Reserve Bank of India.
