What are the new schemes of the Reserve Bank of India being launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will launch the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will also attend the event.
How will the schemes benefit investors?
The two schemes are being seen as significant customer centric steps taken by the RBI. The RBI Retail Direct Scheme will help ease retail investors’ access to the government securities market, and places India in a list of select few countries offering such a facility. The RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme will help improve customer grievance redressal mechanism. This comes at a time when there is a steep rise in the number of complaints against various regulated entities from 1.64 lakh complaints in 2017-18 to 3.30 lakh complaints in 2019-20.
What is the RBI Retail Direct Scheme?
The scheme was announced in February this year. It offers a safe, simple and direct channel for investment in government securities, including Central Government securities, Treasury Bills, State Development Loans and Sovereign Gold Bonds by individual investors. They can access the online portal to open securities account with RBI and then bid in primary auctions and buy and sell securities in the market. No fee will be charged for any of the services provided under the scheme. Using their savings bank account, payment for transactions can be made through Internet-banking and UPI.
Doesn’t the RBI already have Ombudsman Schemes?
Yes. At present, the RBI’s alternate grievance redress mechanism comprises of three Ombudsman schemes, including the Banking Ombudsman Scheme launched in 1995, the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies from 2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions launched in 2019. The schemes are administered through 22 offices of RBI Ombudsman. Complaints that do not fall within the ambit of the Ombudsman mechanism are handled by the Consumer Education and Protection Cells functioning at 30 regional offices of the RBI.
What is the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme?
Based on the findings of a review of internal grievance redressal of banks and other regulated entities, a need was felt to integrate the three Ombudsman Schemes into one, simplify the scheme by covering all complaints involving deficiency in service, and centralising the receipt and initial processing of complaints to enhance process efficiency. Adopting a ‘One Nation – One Ombudsman’ approach, RBI is rolling out the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme for all customers of RBI regulated entities — banks, NBFCs and non-bank payment system participants. It will enable the customers to file their complaint from anywhere at any time through portal or email or through physical mode at one point of receipt, without the need to identify any specific Ombudsman or Scheme. The new scheme will do away with jurisdictional limitations and limited grounds for complaints. RBI will provide a single reference point for customers to submit documents, track status of complaints filed and provide feedback. Complaints that are not covered under the ombudsman scheme will continued to be attended to by the Customer Education and Protection Cells.