The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched the ‘RBI Retail Direct Scheme’ and ‘Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021’. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
Details along with salient features of the both the schemes are in ANNEXURE.
The Minister stated that the Government has not conducted any survey to find out the extent to which these schemes will be able to expand the scope of investment, access to capital markets, and security for investors but the Reserve Bank of India has designed the Scheme based on the feedback received from the market participants for simplifying the access to the G-Sec market by retail investors. The online portal developed for the Scheme is secure and user-friendly. The scheme expects to bring the government securities within easy reach of the general public by simplifying the investment process and widening the investor base, the Minister stated.
The Minister further stated that the RBI Retail Direct Scheme is expected to widen the investor base for the government securities which may result in increased demand for these securities leading to reduced cost of borrowing for the Government. Secondly, the increased retail participation in Indian government securities (G-sec) will improve G-sec market liquidity which would facilitate further deepening of the Indian G-sec market. A well-developed G-sec market bodes well for the development of other segments of the Indian fixed income market.