Who: Task Force headed by D Swarup on Financial Redress Agency
What: Constituted by Union Ministry of Finance
When: 5 June 2015
Union Ministry of Finance on 5 June 2015 constituted a Task Force on Financial Redress Agency (FRA). The 10-member task force will be headed by Dhirendra Swarup who served as the first chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in 2004.
The Task Force was set up to begin the preparatory work for FRA that was recommended by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC). FRA would act as a unified redress agency for financial consumers across the country.

Terms of Reference of the Task Force
  • Review the international best practices in consumer grievance redress, including ombudsman and other dispute resolution mechanisms, with a focus on the financial sector.
  • Review the present practices of management of financial consumer redress in India.
  • Support the Ministry of Finance in procuring the services of competent consultants to operationalise the FRA.
  • To undertake cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of alternatives/options while making recommendations.
The expenditure related to Task Force activities would be met from the budget of NIPFP-DEA research programme, which also will provide appropriate research assistance to the Task Force
The Task Force will complete its task in one year.
About Financial Redress Agency (FRA)
FRA was envisaged in the draft Indian Financial Code (IFC) and was recommended by the FSLRC. It would act as the first forum of independent grievance redress which a financial consumer can access. It will entertain grievance against all financial service providers. It would also handle a large number of relatively low value complaints on a pan-India basis and run a large scale, customer-centric process to deliver efficient and effective outcomes.