Regulators to Ensure Resilience of Financial Market: FSDC Sub-Committee

The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) sub-committee headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday resolved to remain alert to emerging challenges in the backdrop of the second Covid-19 wave and ensure the resilience of financial markets.

The meeting through video conferencing was attended by financial sector regulators including Sebi and IRDAI as well as officials of the finance ministry, corporate affairs ministry, and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

"The members resolved to remain vigilant and proactive to ensure financial markets and financial institutions remained resilient in the face of fresh challenges brought on by the resurgence of the pandemic," the RBI said in a statement.

The sub-committee also reviewed the major developments in the global and domestic economy as well as in various segments of the financial system and discussed the assessments of the members of the scenario emerging from the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

"It also discussed various inter-regulatory issues and reviewed the activities of various technical groups under its purview and the functioning of State Level Coordination Committees (SLCCs) in various states / UTs," it said.

The last meeting of the high-level panel was held in January this year when the Covid-19 situation was under control with cases under a few hundred.

Currently, India is reeling under the impact of the second wave of Covid-19 with over 3 lakh cases being reported for the past 8 days in a row. With each passing day, the death toll is rising.

The country witnessed a record single-day rise of 3,79,257 new coronavirus infections pushing the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 1,83,76,524, while active cases crossed the 30-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The members of the panel who attended the meeting included Ajay Tyagi (chairman, Sebi); Subhash Chandra Khuntia (chairman, Irdai); Supratim Bandyopadhyay (chairman, PFRDA); M S Sahoo (chairperson, IBBI); and Injeti Srinivas (chairperson, IFSCA). They included Ajay Seth (secretary Department of Economic Affairs) Debasish Panda (secretary, Department of Financial Services) and Tarun Bajaj (secretary, Department of Revenue).

Rajesh Verma (Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs); Ajay Prakash Sawhney (secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology); Krishnamurthy Subramanian (Chief Economic Adviser) and Shashank Saksena (secretary, FSDC) also attended the meeting, besides deputy governors and executive director of the RBI.