PM launches 2 RBI schemes. All about the central bank initiatives

What is the News?

Prime Minister has launched two innovative customer-centric initiatives of RBI, viz. Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.

What is a Retail Direct Scheme?

The Retail Direct Scheme allows retail investors to invest in government securities (G-Sec) by opening a gilt security account with the RBI. The account opened will be called Retail Direct Gilt(RDG) Account.

From this RDG account, retail investors can buy bonds sold by the central government, state development loans, or bonds issued by state governments, and sovereign gold bonds, whose price is linked to gold.

However, the participation and allotment of securities will be as per the non-competitive scheme, which means investors can submit bids without specifying a price. The bonds get allotted to the investors at a price established by competitive bidding among financial institutions.

What is Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme?

The scheme is aimed at further improving the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by the RBI.

What is an Ombudsman?

Ombudsman is a public authority that consumers can approach if they are not satisfied with the grievance redressal mechanism of a financial institution.

Until now, there were three different ombudsman schemes for the three categories of financial intermediaries: Banking Ombudsman Scheme(BOS) launched in 1995, Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies(OS-NBFC),2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (OSDT),2019.

But now an integrated ombudsman scheme has been launched. It covers banks, non-bank lenders and other entities that the RBI regulates.

Source: This post is based on the following articles: 

• “PM launches 2 RBI schemes. All about the central bank initiatives” published in Hindustan Times on 13th November 2021
• “PM launches schemes for financial inclusion” published in Livemint on 13th November 2021.
• “PM launches two innovative customer centric initiatives of RBI” published in Livemint on 13th November 2021.