New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday launched 2 Reserve Bank of India schemes, RBI-Retail Direct scheme and Integrated Ombudsman Scheme that are aimed at increasing retail investor’s participation in government securities and solving their bank and finance-related grievances in an integrated manner.
While the first scheme, the RBI-RD scheme, provides a safe and easy route to retail investors to invest in the Government of India securities such as government bonds and other instruments from the convenience of their homes, the second scheme, a single-window system for resolution of their grievances related to banks, non-banking finance companies and payment system operators in an integrated manner from anywhere in the country.
Prime Minister Modi said these schemes will cover more than 11,350 banks, non-banking finance companies and payment systems, operators.
“Retail Direct Scheme will give strength to the inclusion of everyone in the economy as it will bring in the middle class, employees, small businessmen and senior citizens with their small savings directly and securely in government securities,” said the Prime Minister.
He said these two schemes will benefit more than 44 crore credit accounts and 220 crore bank accounts.
PM Modi said RBI-Retail Direct Scheme will expand the scope of investment in the country and make access to capital markets easier, more secure for investors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the two schemes through a video link in presence of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, several cabinet ministers such as Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnaw, and RBI governor Shakti Kanta Das and industry leaders.
In his address, Modi said these two citizen-centric schemes will go a long way in increasing retail participation in government security and strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism in the country.
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"In the last seven years, NPAs were recognized with transparency. The focus has been on resolution; multiple reforms were carried out in the financial system and public sector banks," the Prime Minister said while speaking at the launch of two customer-centric initiatives of RBI.
"With the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, small investors in the country have got a safe medium of investment in government securities. With Reserve Bank- Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 'One Nation, One Ombudsman System' has taken shape in the banking sector today," the Prime Minister added.
The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme aims to further improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI.
The central theme of the scheme 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.
A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.
Prime Minister Modi also lauded the use of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) across the country and said that digital transactions pan India surged 19 times in the last seven years.
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"UPI has become the world's leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short span of time. In just seven years, digital transactions in India has jumped 19 times. Today our banking system is operational 24 hours, 7 days and 12 months anytime, anywhere in the country," the Prime Minister said while speaking at the launch of two customer-centric initiatives of RBI.
PM Modi said, "Till 6-7 years ago, banking, pension, insurance, everything used to be like an 'exclusive club in India'. Common citizens of the country, poor families, farmers, small traders-businessmen, women, Dalits-deprived-backwards, all these facilities were far away for all of them."
The Prime Minister further pointed out that earlier, there were no bank branches, no staff, no internet, no awareness in the banking sector.
"The people who had the responsibility of taking these facilities to the poor also never paid any attention to it. Rather, various excuses were made for not changing. It was said that there is no bank branch, no staff, no internet, no awareness, no idea what were the arguments," the Prime Minister said.
"To further strengthen the banking sector, cooperative banks were also brought under the purview of RBI. Due to this the governance of these banks is also improving and the trust in this system is getting stronger even among the lakhs of depositors who are there," he further added.
