The Reserve Bank of India has constituted a committee to look at the various facets of household finance in India and to benchmark India’s position vis-à-vis both the peer countries and advanced countries. RBI said the committee will benchmark the current depth of household financial markets in India vis-a-vis those in other major world markets and identify areas of priority for growth and change and characterise and evaluate households’ demands in financial markets for assets such as pensions as well as liabilities such as home loans over the coming decade. It will consider whether, how, and why the financial allocations of Indian households deviate from desirable financial allocation and behaviour. The committee will also evaluate the design of new systems and the redesign of existing systems of incentives and regulations to encourage and enable better participation by Indian households in formal financial markets. It will also assess the role of new financial technologies and products such as robo-advising, automatically refinancing mortgages in the cost-effective provision of high-quality and suitable financial products to Indian households while containing risks. The Committee will be chaired by University of Oxford financial economics professor Dr Tarun Ramadorai and will have representation from Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority apart from RBI.
