In order to tighten the noose around the unscrupulous Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) which are operational in the State and collecting money from the public under various lucrative schemes such as Collective Investment Schemes and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes with fraudulent intentions, the Punjab Government has intensified its action in coordination with RBI. In this direction a meeting of the High Powered State level coordination Committee on NBFC constituted under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Punjab was held today. The Committee has been constituted mainly for the purpose of having a coordinated approach by all the regulating agencies to have a mechanism of preventive vigilance towards protection of interests of depositors in view of unauthorized entities accepting deposits from them.It was disclosed that RBI is minutely supervising the activities of the registered NBFCs and is cancelling the Registration Certificates of NBFCs where it finds that financial irregularities are committed. To safeguard the interest of citizens investing in various financial schemes, Punjab Government has already finalized the “Punjab Protection of Interests of Depositors Bill” after taking inputs from RBI, SEBI and other agencies.
Principal Secretary Finance informed that Reserve Bank of India is in the process of making clear guidelines for the State Government functionaries at the field level, keeping in view the provisions under various Acts so that State Government can prevent the financial frauds and save the public at large. It was decided during the meeting that RBI will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Mahatama Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration for training of various field officials of the State Government on various provisions of RBI, SEBI and other relevant financial acts. This detailed training shall help the field officials in better implementation of RBI/SEBI and other financial guidelines and shall reduce the penetration of unscrupulous financial companies.
To provide better information to the citizens regarding unscrupulous financial companies, RBI will share the complete information of these unscrupulous financial with the State Government online. The RBI portal will be integrated with Punjab Government portal to provide updated information about these companies.
State has already notified Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) of all the districts as Joint Director, Institutional Finance and Banking. All the ADCs have been directed to collect information on various Non-Banking Financial entities working in their jurisdiction. Chief Secretary stated that the information dissemination to the rural citizens should be actively done by RBI through SMS, Mobile/Voice calls, advertisements through radio and other conventional media etc. He further said an operating mechanism of complaints received regarding unauthorized acceptance of deposits by the companies will also be developed by the State Government in consultation with RBI.Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Mr. Jagpal Singh Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary Home, Mr D P Reddy, Principal Secretary, Finance, Mr. Jaspal Singh, Secretary Expenditure, Ms. Rashmi Fauzdar, Regional Director RBI, Ms. Kiran Sharma, General Manager, RBI, Dr. Sanjeev Sharma,Executive Director National Housing Bank, and senior officials from RBI,SEBI and State Government.