Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched two customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) namely the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das were also present during the virtual launch.
The RBI Retail Direct Scheme is aimed towards enhancing access to the government securities (G-Secs) market for retail investors, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) informed in a press release. It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the central and the state governments.
“Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost,” it said.
Separately, the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme aims to improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI.
The central theme of this is based on ‘One Nation-One Ombudsman’ with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints.
There will be a single point of reference for customers to file their complaints, submit the documents, track status and provide feedback, the PMO statement said.
A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.
Speaking at the launch, Modi said that the retail direct scheme will provide the small investors with a simple and safe medium of investment in government securities. Similarly, the ‘One Nation, One Ombudsman System’ is taking shape in the banking industry with the launch of the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme today.
The prime minister said that the two schemes that are launched today will be expanding the scope of investment in the country and make access to capital markets easier and more secure for the investors.
RBI’s retail direct and the integrated ombudsman schemes will widen the investment horizon for investors and make capital markets more accessible to the investors, Modi said.
He also added that in the last seven years, the NPAs were recognized with transparency, the focus was on resolution and recovery. The public sector banks were recapitalised and one after the other reforms were carried out in the financial system and banking sector.
