Central Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 30th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in New Delhi today.

• Amid rising geopolitical uncertainty, increasing impact of AI and a sharp jump in global bond yields, the FSDC reviewed macro‑financial stability.
• The FSDC emphasized heightened vigilance and pre‑emptive measures to mitigate emerging risks to India’s financial stability.
• Amid global economic uncertainties, the Finance Minister urged more frequent FSDC meetings.
• The FSDC discussed strengthening the domestic investment ecosystem, boosting capital flows and deepening financial sector reforms.

Central Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 30th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in New Delhi today, attended by FSDC members.

The FSDC meeting examined broad financial‑stability issues and India’s preparedness to address them, focusing on regulatory reforms and digital modernisation in the financial sector, encouraging fintech innovation and exploring tokenisation of financial and other real assets.

The council reviewed the cyber‑security capacity of the Indian financial sector and, through the inter‑ministerial group (IMG) comprising regulators and cyber‑security agencies, considered the Financial Sector Cyber Security Strategy (FSCSS) prepared jointly by DEA, DFS and MEITY. Implementation of the FSSCS is expected to enhance overall security of the Indian financial sector. Discussions also covered India’s readiness for protecting critical information infrastructure, strengthening security systems and improving cyber‑security preparedness of regional rural banks (RRBs).

The FSDC also discussed issues related to formulating a strategy for implementing previous decisions and budget announcements, including the following:

Strengthening the domestic investment ecosystem and improving the flow of resources for investments such as Gift‑IFSC;

Simplifying and digitising KYC processes and digital onboarding for NRIs and FPI;

With special focus on MSMEs, reforms to promote DPI in India, including account aggregators and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework;

Reducing intermediation costs in the financial sector, improving regulatory accountability and rationalising credit guarantee schemes in India.

The FSDC acknowledged emerging trends in domestic and global financial conditions and, given the current geopolitical uncertainties, the growing use of artificial intelligence and the sharp rise in global bond yields, stressed the need for caution. The council recognised the need for proactive steps to reduce potential risks to financial stability and also urged the adoption of adequate safeguards to strengthen the financial system. Members decided to enhance inter‑regulatory coordination for the broader development of the financial sector.

The Finance Minister urged regulatory bodies and relevant stakeholders to accelerate the process of returning heirless assets (bank deposits, dividends, shares, post office accounts, insurance and pension funds, etc.) to their rightful owners as quickly as possible.

The FSDC praised the success achieved in returning heirless financial assets under the ‘Your Money, Your Right’ campaign at the district level and directed ministries and regulators to make additional efforts to ensure timely refunds to the rightful owners.

Citing the growing geopolitical crisis and global uncertainty, Mrs. Sitharaman requested the council to hold FSDC meetings at regular intervals as per the pre‑determined schedule.

The FSDC also took note of the activities of the FSDC sub‑committee chaired by the RBI Governor and the actions taken on pending previous decisions.

Present at the FSDC meeting were RBI Governor Shri Sanjay Malhotra; Secretary, Economic Affairs Department, Ministry of Finance, Ms. Anuradha Thakur; Secretary, Financial Services Department, Ministry of Finance, Shri Sanjay Lohia; Secretary, Revenue Department, Ministry of Finance, Shri Arvind Srivastava; Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Shri S. Krishnan; Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Dr. Pallavi Jain Goyal; Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Dr. V. Anant Nageshwaran; Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Shri Tuhin Kanta Pandey; Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, Shri Ajay Seth; Chairman, International Financial Services Centres Authority, Shri K. Rajaraman; Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, Shri S. Raman; Acting Chairman, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, Shri Jayanti Prasad; Director‑General, Computer Emergency Response Team‑India (CERT‑In), Dr. Sanjay Bahl; and FSDC Secretary, Economic Affairs Department, Ms. Aparna Sinha.