Nirmala Sitharaman Chairs 30th FSDC Meeting in New Delhi

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 30th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in New Delhi on 23 October 2026, with the Council's members present.

What the Council reviewed

The FSDC went over the macro-financial situation at home and abroad and India's readiness to deal with it. Members agreed that vigilance was needed in the face of continuing geopolitical uncertainty, the boom in artificial intelligence and the steep climb in global bond yields, and that risks to financial stability should be met with action taken in advance rather than after the event. They also decided to tighten coordination between the regulators for the wider development of the financial sector.

Cyber resilience and the new strategy

The Council reviewed the cyber resilience of the Indian financial sector and took note of the Financial Sector Cyber Security Strategy (FSCSS), drawn up by an Inter-Ministerial Group of financial sector regulators and cyber security agencies working with the Department of Economic Affairs, the Department of Financial Services and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Discussion also covered protection of Critical Information Infrastructure and better cyber security preparedness in Regional Rural Banks.

Reform items on the table

• Innovation in fintech, and the prospects of tokenisation of financial assets and other real-world assets.
• Strengthening the domestic investment ecosystem and improving resource flow, including into the GIFT-IFSC.
• Simpler, digital KYC and digital onboarding for NRIs and foreign portfolio investors.
• Scaling up digital public infrastructure such as the Account Aggregator and the Unified Lending Interface, with MSMEs in focus.
• Cutting the cost of intermediation, making regulation more responsive and rationalising credit guarantee schemes.

Unclaimed assets and the meeting calendar

The Finance Minister pressed regulators and other stakeholders to speed up the refund of unclaimed assets, among them bank deposits, dividends, shares, post office accounts, insurance money and pension funds, to their rightful owners. The Council noted the work done at district level under the 'Your Money, Your Right' campaign and asked ministries and regulators to push further. Given the global headwinds, Smt. Sitharaman asked that the FSDC meet more often and on a pre-decided calendar. The Council also took note of what the FSDC Sub-Committee, chaired by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has been doing, and of the action taken on earlier decisions.

Who attended

Those present included Shri Sanjay Malhotra, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India; Shri Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Chairperson of SEBI; Shri Ajay Seth, Chairperson of IRDAI; Shri K. Rajaraman, Chairperson of the International Financial Services Centres Authority; Shri S. Ramann, Chairperson of PFRDA; Shri Jayanti Prasad, Acting Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India; Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General of CERT-In; and Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser.