Echoing the earlier statement of Raghuram Rajan, who is the current Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), now the Deputy Governor SS Mundra has called for regulating the cryptocurrency market in India and to monitor it well to ensure that it “does not pose any concerns.”
Mundra expressed his viewpoint while speaking at the annual Financial Institution Benchmarking & Calibration (FIBAC) conference in Mumbai. He further said that “it is near impossible to regulate the behavior and choices of individuals…hence, it will be more practical for the regulatory authorities to push for bringing in appropriate regulatory changes in their jurisdiction which would enable regulation of the aggregators’ electronic dealing platform. “
He also said that as a regulator, one may not be ostensibly concerned over the way through which the finance is raised. However, he said, that still “there are concerns around orderly growth of the system, consumer protection and grievance redressal, disaster recovery and business stability plans for the intermediating electronic platforms.”
Mundra’s statement means that RBI is seriously pondering over ways to monitor the world of cryptocurrency although, as Rajan mentioned last week, it is only carefully watching it and does not wish to interfere at this stage because in India this market is very small.
It is not the first time that RBI is speaking on cryptocurrency, in the year 2013 too RBI had voiced apprehensions over the usage of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.
Mundra also later added that the grey zone areas of cryptocurrency must be identified and that experience sharing must also take place between different regulators as it could help in ensuring the consumer security.
Further, he opined that there exists a need to strengthen the Financial Stability and Development Council and also the State Level Coordination committees to ensure that no loopholes can be abused by vested interests.