Need to be prepared for challenges facing the economy: FSDC
The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) comprising market regulators that met under the chairmanship of finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday agreed to be in a state of preparedness to manage any vulnerability in the Indian economy.
At the 17th meeting of FSDC, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, Arvind Subramanian, made a presentation on the state of the economy. “The Council noted that India has macro-economic stability today on the back of improvements in its macro-economic fundamentals, structural reforms with the launch of the goods and services tax (GST), action being taken to address the twin balance sheet challenge, extraordinary financial market confidence, reflected in high and rising bond and especially stock valuations and longterm positive consequences of demonetisation. The Council also discussed the issues and challenges facing the Indian economy and members agreed on the need to keep constant vigil and be in a state of preparedness of managing any external and internal vulnerabilities,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The Council also took note of the progress of Financial Sector Assessment Program for India, jointly conducted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. “Council directed that the assessment report should be finalised by the end of this calendar year,” the statement said.
FSDC took note of the develop- ments and progress made in setting up of Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) and Financial Data Management Centre and discussed measures for timebound implementation of the institution building initiative.
CERT-Fin will be the key to ensuring a comprehensive cybersecurity framework for the financial sector, especially at a time when there has been a burst of activity in the fintech space as India makes efforts to embrace a less-cash economy.
The Council discussed the central KYC registry (CKYCR) system, took note of the initiatives taken in this regard by the members and discussed the issues in respect of operationalisation of CKYCR. It also deliberated on strengthening the regulation of the credit rating agencies (CRAs).
Apart from CEA Subramanian and RBI governor Patel, the meeting was attended by the four secretaries of the finance ministry, secretaries of corporate affairs, electronics and chairmen of insurance, pension and securities market regulators.