FM Sitharaman calls for speeding up refunds of unclaimed amounts in financial sector

Mumbai, June 10 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday urged regulators and departments to expedite the process of refund to rightful owners of unclaimed amounts in the financial sector, including bank deposits, dividends, shares, post office accounts, insurance, and pension funds.

Addressing the 29th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) here, the Finance Minister said that special district-level camps must be held to ensure the expeditious and seamless refund of such assets to rightful owners.

"This drive is to be conducted in coordination with the RBI, the SEBI, the MCA, the PFRDA, and the IRDA, along with banks, pension agencies, insurance companies, etc. The unclaimed amounts comprise deposits in banks; unclaimed shares and dividends are managed by the IEPFA; and unclaimed insurance and pension funds are with the IRDAI and the PFRDA, respectively," she said.

The Finance Minister also exhorted the Council to take proactive steps to ensure that citizens should have a seamless experience with respect to KYC processes across the financial sector.

She called for prescribing common KYC norms, simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process, including digital onboarding for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), including PIOs and OCIs, in the Indian securities market.

The FSDC deliberated on issues related to macrofinancial stability and India’s preparedness to deal with them. In light of the analysis of cybersecurity regulations, sectoral preparedness, and the recommendations of the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) 2024-25, the FSDC considered strengthening the cyber resilience framework of the Indian financial sector through a financial sector-specific cybersecurity strategy.

Issues relating to formulating a strategy for implementing the past decisions and the budget announcements were also discussed at the meeting.

These included establishing an appropriate framework by regulators for evaluating and enhancing the responsiveness of regulations and subsidiary instructions, and analysing trends in financing flows as part of a strategy to increase the investment ratio.

Besides, the FSDC deliberated on the emerging trends from the domestic and global macro-financial situation and stressed the need to be vigilant. The Council recognised the need for proactive efforts to mitigate potential risks to financial stability while adopting adequate safeguards for the financial system’s resilience. The members decided to strengthen the inter-regulatory coordination for the wider development of the financial sector.

The FSDC also took note of the activities undertaken by the FSDC Sub-Committee, chaired by the RBI Governor and the action taken by members on the pending past decisions of the FSDC.

The FSDC meeting was attended by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, SEBI chief Tuhin Kant Pandey, 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.

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