Regulators protest against govt’s moves on FSLRC

NEW DELHI: Regulators on Friday lodged a protest against the way the finance ministry was implementing at least two of the proposals put forward by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), prompting finance minister Arun Jaitley to step in.
At a meeting of the Financial Sector Development Council (FSDC), chaired by Jaitley, some of the regulators objected to the government’s insistence that they follow FSLRC’s prescription of holding public consultations before finalizing any rule, sources familiar with the deliberations told TOI.Their concern stemmed from the fact that in certain circumstances guidelines would need to be issued immediately, leaving them with little or no time for consultations. But North Block appeared to be insistent, resulting in Jaitley suggesting that under special situations the financial sector regulators could go ahead with the exercise and later inform their boards. “He suggested a middle path of sorts to diffuse the situation,” said a source.
Similarly, the finance ministry had prepared an information portal for monitoring progress made by regulators on the implementation of the non-legislative recommendations. The regulators have been asked to state whether they are compliant with the recommendations or not and some of them objected to the “yes-no-type” format. Again, the minister is learnt to have intervened and asked his officers to rework the format and make it descriptive.
FSDC is a platform comprising top finance ministry officials and the financial sector regulators — Reserve Bank of India, Sebi, IRDA and the pension watchdog — which meets periodically to take stock of the developments in the economy.