The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) is vetting all the pending Bills, including those for banking, insurance and pension, to finetune the laws before they are taken up for approval in Parliament, the panel?s chairman, Justice BN Srikrishna, said on Thursday.
The panel, which recently proposed merging Sebi, Irda, PFRDA and Forwards Market Commision into a single rregulator?Unified Financial Agency?also pitched for strengthening the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC).
Srikrishna said the proposed UFA will be mandated to enforce consumer protection law and micro-prudential law in all sectors other than banking and payments.
Elaborating on the proposed regulatory architecture, Srikrishna said while the Reserve Bank of India should continue to function as a separate regulator for monetary policy, banking and payment system, the debt management operation should be gradually hived off into a separate agency.
Asked if FSLRC was looking into the Bills on insurance, pension and banking, Srikrishna said: ??We have gone through the pending Bills. We will give our suggestion to the government.??
In an approach paper put out on Monday, the Justice BN Srikrishna-headed FSLRC has mooted a seven-agency model to regulate and develop the financial sector and ensure consumer protection. The FSLRC was setup in March 2011 to rewrite and streamline the financial sector laws, and regulations and bring them in harmony with modern requirements. It was given 24 months to submit its report.
The FSLRC?s mandate was to construct a set of financial laws that will lay a strong legal foundation for the Indian financial system.
He said the panel will recommend steps to ??statutorily empowered, independent regulators with clear goals, powers and accountability.?? The panel is also looking at ??removing twilight zones in the financial sector?? so that every entity is on the radar of the regulator.
