Sonali (Lawyer) 03 July 2013

National Seminar on Financial Consumer Protection

Distinguish Dignitaries:

DR. DEEPALI PANT JOSHI	SH. YOGESH AGARWAL	SH. ANANTA BARUA*
Executive Director, RBI	Chairperson, PFRDA	Executive Director, SEBI

Date: 24th July' 13

Venue: Hotel Royal Plaza, New Delhi

Introduction:

For the development of any nation or economy financial services play a key role and the growth of the financial sector largely depends upon confidence of users/consumers in their fairness, transparency, accountability, responsiveness, accessibility and adaptability. The need for consumer protection arises from an imbalance of power, information and resources between consumers and their financial service providers.

The global financial crisis highlighted the need for more effective financial consumer protection measures as consumers face more sophisticated and complex financial markets. The availability of information has grown both in quantity and complexity and the pace of change, in terms of new product developments, product innovations, and technological advances, has increased significantly.

This Seminar bring together high-level government officials and experts from public authorities, including central banks and regulatory and supervisory authorities, ministries of finance and consumer and investor education bodies, as well as senior representatives from the private sector and academics from India.

Key Areas of Discussion:

• Existing frameworks for financial consumer protection and education in India; Time to revisit

• Lack of transparency and disclosures, hidden charges, penalties, mis-selling etc.: Building consumer awareness

• Violation of KYC guidelines

• Moving away from caveat emptor to empowering the consumer; Ensuring Conducive Practices

• Justifiable Pricing Practices by financial institutions; Eradicating discrimination

• Attracting domestic investors for Participative Growth

• Incentivizing Product-innovation to achieve Financial Inclusion

• Unified Financial Redress Agency (UFRA) for Financial Consumer grievances; Viability & Acceptance?

• Building regulatory framework where service provider acts in the best interest of the Financial Consumer

• Suitability Policy with Legal Liability on financial service providers

• Leveraging technology for financial consumer protection