The "Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme), 2021" launched on November 12, 2021, provides for a cost free and expeditious Alternate Grievance Redress framework to the customers of the RBI regulated entities (REs) covered under the Scheme. The Scheme integrated the erstwhile three Ombudsman schemes namely, the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006, the Ombudsman Scheme for NBFCs, 2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions, 2019, is designed to operate under "One Nation - One Ombudsman" approach and enables seamless complaint lodgment and processing experience for the customer from anywhere in the country. Under the Scheme, a customer can approach the Ombudsman, if his/her grievance is not resolved by the RE within 30 days of filing or the customer is not satisfied with the resolution provided by the Regulated Entity.

As part of continuing efforts to increase retail participation in government securities, ‘the RBI Retail Direct’ facility was announced in the Statement of Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated February 05, 2021 for improving ease of access by retail investors through online access to the government securities market – both primary and secondary - along with the facility to open their gilt securities account (‘Retail Direct’) with the RBI. The scheme of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Retail Direct has been formulated as a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in Government Securities by individual investors.

The Reserve Bank of India has constructed a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) in consultation with Government and respective sectoral regulators, to measure the extent of financial inclusion across the country in a holistic manner. The Index is responsive to ease of access, availability and usage of services, as well as quality of services.

The RS allows the regulator, the innovators, the financial service providers (as potential deployers of the technology) and the customers (as final users) to conduct filed tests to collect evidence on the benefits and risks of new financial innovations, while carefully monitoring and containing their risks. The RBI announced ‘Enabling framework for Regulatory Sandbox’ on August 13, 2019, with objective to (i) foster responsible innovation in financial services, (ii) promote efficiency and (iii) bring benefit to consumers.

To encourage and nurture financial innovation in a sustainable manner through an institutional set-up, RBI has set up the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH). The Hub strives towards creating an eco-system that focusses on promoting access to financial services and products and further financial inclusion. RBIH will also develop the required internal infrastructure to promote FinTech research and facilitate engagement with innovators and start-ups.

Greening India’s Financial System is a key imperative for tackling the effects of Climate Change. This calls for concerted efforts by the Reserve Bank of India and its regulated entities.

The RTGS system was made 24x7x365 basis from December 14, 2020. The large value payments can now be made round the clock throughout the year.

UPI enabled payments were enabled for feature phone users to deepen the digital payment ecosystem and financial inclusion.

India and Singapore to link their fast payment systems UPI and Pay Now to facilitate swifter and low cost cross – border payments between the two countries.

The NEFT system was made 24x7x365 basis from December 16, 2019. The individual retails payments can be now be made round the clock throughout the year.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 16, 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting to improve mutual cooperation between the two central banks.