There is a need for a debate on the Indian Financial Code (IFC), according to T. S. Vijayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

Speaking at a seminar on IFC organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) here on Saturday, Vijayan said a standardisation of intermediation should be brought in by the proposed financial code.

IFC is a draft bill recommended by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) in its report to the Government.

It has recommended that the existing regulators — SEBI, FMC, IRDA and PFRDA — should be merged into a new unified agency.

“If the financial code comes into force, Hyderabad will lose its only regulator and IRDA would not be there,” Vijayan, who recently took over IRDA chief, said.

Vijayan said there should be no ambiguity in various recommendations of the FSLRC, such as principle-based regulation and modalities on capital flows.

C. K. G. Nair, Secretary, FSLRC said the proposed code is for ‘tomorrow’s India’ as the economy is expected to touch $15 trillion by 2030 from the current $2 trillion.

S. N. Ananthasubramanian, President, ICSI said the seminar was the first initiative of its kind to debate the financial code.

>naga.gunturi@thehindu.co.in

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