Finance World's Question To Self: Too Many Regulators Within?

From fintech to urban cooperatives, a host of industry associations have expressed interest in becoming self-regulatory organisations

- RAGHU MOHAN

Just how many self-regulatory organisations (SROs) are too many? Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped the number of such entities for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) at "a maximum of two". And to ensure the smaller NBFCs get a fair voice, it said an SRO shall have at least 10 per cent of those in the "base layer" according to the scale-based regulatory framework. In one fell swoop, Mint Road set aside concerns of a proliferation of SROS among NBFCs, given the many kinds of entities at play here: From those into housing finance to large deposittaking firms.

Should such an approach be extended to SROs in other parts of the financial world?

Ever since the 'Omnibus Framework for recognition of SROs for Regulated Entities of the RBI' was put out for public comments on March 21, a host of industry associations have expressed interest in becoming SROs.