FM asks Finance Ministry to implement financial reform panel views

NEW DELHI: The financial sector regulator should seriously look at implementing some of the proposals suggested by FSLRC to reform the regulatory architecture for the sector, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

"Many of the elements of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) recommended legal processes are not repugnant to the present laws...a basic cost benefit analysis of regulation that can be done under present laws," the Finance Minister said at a seminar on Indian financial code organised by ICSI.

"Therefore, I suggest that the Ministry of Finance and the regulatory agencies may look seriously at operationalising some of these elements at the earliest even within the scope of the present laws for e.g. detailed and structural stakeholders consultations before issue of new regulations that can be done under the present law," he said.

The commission was set up to rewrite financial sector laws and to bring them in tune with current requirements. The commission, chaired by former Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna, submitted its report in March.

However, Chidambaram said changes would require considerable internal organisational strengthening, capacity building and workflow modification.

"I hope that in the Ministry of Finance we can start pursuing these goals forthwith," he said.

Admitting that making and passing legislations in India was "not easy", the Finance Minister said drafting an Indian financial code, based on the reforms commission's views, will be a major milestone.

The commission in its report had prepared a model draft Indian Financial Code Bill.

"...nevertheless we cannot give up we are duty bound to the people of this country to put in place a financial regulatory system that will serve us well for the next 50 more years. While we embark on these tasks, there is something that we can do in the interim," he added.