Panel submits report on India's financial sector

The Committee on Financial Sector Assessment (CFSA), a high-level panel that looked into the various aspects of India's financial sector, has submitted its report to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Wednesady.

The report has been compiled by a panel headed by Rakesh Mohan, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and co-chaired by Ashok Chawla, finance secretary of economic affairs.

The report, in six volumes, revolves around the premise that resilience and stability in the domestic financial system are essential to a country's macroeconomic stability, particularly in an increasingly integrated world.

The report draws hugely from an earlier Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP), jointly initiated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 1999, partly in response to the Asian crisis of the late 1990s. The Fund-Bank report specifically looks at countries' financial sectors, assessing strengths and vulnerabilities, in order to reduce the chances of crisis.

''The resilience and stability of the domestic financial system is essential to a country's own macroeconomic stability, particularly in an increasingly integrated world. financial stability is important to the achievement of development goals as well,'' the report said.

''The FSAP, jointly initiated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 1999, partly in response to the Asian crisis of the late 1990s, specifically looks at countries' financial sectors, assessing strengths and vulnerabilities in order to reduce the potential for crisis. It is a comprehensive health check-up of a country's financial system,'' it said.