The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointment a Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households under the Chairmanship of Shri Nachiket Mor, member on the Central Board of Directors, RBI in the month of Sep 2013.
Its prime object was to frame a clear and detailed vision for financial inclusion and financial deepening in India and designing principles for achievement of financial inclusion and financial deepening across the country and also development of comprehensive framework to monitor the progress of financial inclusion.
Some of the key recommendations of the CCFS include:
- Universal Electronic Bank Account for every resident to be made available at the time of issuing the Aadhaar number.
- Licensing, with lowered entry barriers but otherwise equivalent treatment, more functionally focused banks, including payment banks, wholesale consumer banks, and wholesale investment banks.
- Developing risk-based supervision processes for regional banks and strengthening existing ones before creating new regional banks.
- Reorienting the focus of NABARD, SIDBI, and NHB to be market-makers and providers of risk-based credit enhancements.
- Consolidating NBFC definitions into two categories: Core investment companies and other NBFCs. Restore permission of NBFCs-ND to act as business correspondents.
- On priority sector lending, while the Committee acknowledged that the current focus of the policy, on small farmers, small businesses, and weaker sections, was well placed, it recommended an approach that incentivizes each provider to specialize in one or more sectors of the economy and regions of the country. It recommends raising priority sector lending cap for banks to 50 per cent from the current 40 per cent.
