Financial sector regulators on Friday signed an agreement to monitor conglomerates - large banks and other key players - in view of their rising importance to the real economy, apart from approving a national strategy for financial education.
The decisions were taken at a sub-committee meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) held here, the Reserve Bank said in a statement.
The four financial sector regulators are the Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
The MoU is aimed at better cooperation in the field of joint supervision and monitoring of the large groups identified as financial conglomerates.
The FSDC meeting, chaired by RBI Governor D Subbarao, also approved formulating a national strategy for financial education by incorporating the feedback received from public consultations and from a global peer review, RBI said without providing details.
Apart from Dr. Subbarao, the meeting was attended by Finance Secretary R S Gujral, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru, Chief Economic Adviser to the Finance Minister Raghuram Rajan, SEBI Chairman U K Sinha, IRDA chief T S Vijayan and PFRDA Chairman Yogesh Agarwal.
All the four RBI Deputy Governors - K C Chakrabarty, Anand Sinha, H R Khan and Urjit Patel - and RBI Executive Director G Gopalakrishna were also present.
The meeting also discussed the continuing uncertainty in the eurozone and the US and their impact on capital flows to India and other emerging markets.
Other key topics deliberated upon were potential risks to the stability of Indian financial system due to the slowing growth, rising current account deficit and concerns on asset quality of banks, the release added.