RBI governor releases five-year national financial inclusion strategy

Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Monday released a national strategy aimed to deepen financial inclusion over the next five years. The ‘National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI): 2025-30 emphasises a synergistic ecosystem approach, improving the quality and consistency of last-mile access and effective usage of financial services.

The strategy lists out five objectives called ‘Panch-Jyoti’ that are aimed at elevating the state of financial inclusion in the country and 47 action points to achieve. These include adopting a gender-sensitive approach for women-led financial inclusion and differentiated strategies for improving the financial resilience of households, especially for the underserved and vulnerable segments, as per an official statement.

Efforts are also centred around improving the availability and use of an equitable, responsible, suitable, and affordable bouquet of financial services to achieve financial safety and financial security for households and micro enterprises, the RBI said.

The Panch-Jyoti strategy is also focusing on synergising livelihood, skill development and support ecosystem and its linkages with financial inclusion, the central bank said.

In his foreword, Malhotra said that the earlier five-year strategy ending in 2024 has achieved its objectives.

Efforts will also be made to leverage financial education as a tool for promoting financial discipline, and strengthen the quality and reliability of customer protection and grievance redressal measures.