Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the Union Finance Minister has said that the Government is committed to take the process of financial sector reforms further and proposes to move the following legislations in the financial sector. 

        i.            The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008;

      ii.            The Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2009;

    iii.            The revised Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, first introduced in 2005;

    iv.            Banking Laws Amendment Bill, 2011;

      v.            Bill on Factoring and Assignment of Receivables;

    vi.            The State Bank of India(Subsidiary Banks Laws) Amendment Bill, 2009; and

  vii.            Bill to amend RDBFI Act 1993 and SARFAESI Act 2002. 

The Finance Minister also stated that amendments are proposed to the Banking Regulation Act to give some additional licenses to the private sector players.  He mentioned that the discussion by way of inviting feedback from the public on the paper issued in this context by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in August 2010 is complete.  Shri Mukherjee said, he proposes to bring in this regard in the current Session and RBI is planning to issue the guidelines for banking licenses before close of this financial year. 

Banking license reform: guidelines to enable additional private sector entrants and related legislative amendments forthcoming. Proposed legislative measures and regulatory action aim to advance financial sector reform through multiple targeted amendments across banking, insurance, pension, and credit recovery frameworks, and to expand private sector participation by permitting additional banking licences under amendments to the Banking Regulation framework; the process has incorporated public consultation and the central bank intends to publish detailed banking licence guidelines within the current policy cycle.