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| Persuading RBI to Evolve Workable Solutions For Consumer Issues |
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| Dear Moneylifers, |
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 Greetings! For a long time now we have been pushing for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hear what consumer organisations have to say about dealing with banks. Governor Shaktikanta Das's intervention led to an interesting engagement with Moneylife Foundation and a few other consumer organisations and activists that we have been working closely with. We have been assured that the issues that we raised through a detailed note would be looked at. We are happy with RBI's positive engagement led by Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao and ED Jayant Kumar Dash along with senior executives from consumer services and technology at RBI. |
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| Having said that, it is still our view that the RBI needs to engage directly with consumers to understand pain points that we face as ordinary people, instead of getting all its inputs from intermediaries and the Indian Banks' Association. We have also found that in many issues such as problems with FASTag, officials are actually unaware of the situation on the ground and difficulties faced by people such as – FASTag readers that are slow and ineffective and lead to delays, double debits on cards and the difficult redress process – especially for less educated commercial drivers with self-owned vehicles. We believe our engagement has been a good and very positive beginning and we look forward to a change for the better in future. |
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| 1) UPI Transactions and Frauds: |
| We have recommended that the payment industry must ensure that the reporting of UPI fraud should become a frictionless activity with direct reporting. We note that that the #SafetyShield has been launched since our meeting and we look forward to your feedback. More on it here. |
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| 2) Dhani App Issues & Sleeper Loans: |
| The Dhani loans issue had an interesting outcome. It turns out that this is a systemic issue with the onboarding process followed by fintech companies. You can read details here and we have suggested solutions by empowering us, as consumers. A more positive outcome was that Dhani and its director Mr Gagan Banga reached out to us, explained matters and offered to redress complaints on a priority basis. Moneylife Foundation sent 16 complaints of which a dozen were genuine and each was redressed in a matter of hours. We do not support non-payment of dues and will not be pursuing those who wrongly tried to take advantage of our offer to avoid payments. |
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| 3) Nomination and Transmission Issues: |
| We have asked for Standard Operating Procedures across banks and fintech companies to deal with nomination and specific issues such as death of a joint-holder. |
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| 4) Indiscriminate Freezing and Closure of Accounts |
| We have pointed out that threats to suspend and freeze accounts as the first step to KYC verification has started again. This is another issue which is being dismissed as spam calls or hoax calls and RBI has been given the wrong picture. Since I have faced it personally and pointed this out, we hope the issue will receive serious attention. |
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| Recent Talks and Webinars: |
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| The Corona virus has increased our focus on health and wellness and we are attempting to make you aware of positive choices and facts through a series of expert talks. |
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| Bee Farmer Mukesh Pathak on the Benefits of Honey: |
 Mr Mukesh Pathak of Faba Honey shared with us his deep understanding of different kinds of honey, the value of unprocessed honey, cost factor, labelling issues and how government regulations are being skewed by vested interests. I can only urge you to read about the talk here. |
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| Or, better still, watch the video here: |
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| Food Additives: |
 Mr Ashok Kanchan, Chief Advisor, for Food, Nutrition and Health at Consumer Voice gave us an interesting perspective on the adverse effect of food additives and colours. You can read about the talk here. In case you have missed the session, you can catch it here. |
| In case you have missed the session, you can catch it here. |
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| 12 Years of Moneylife Foundation |
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| Moneylife Foundation turned 12 last month. We thank you for your good wishes and support on this journey and your generous donations that help keep us strong, independent and unbiased. |
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| The past 12 years have offered plenty of learning, the biggest one is that we can keep pushing regulators in a frank and fearless manner, but to make a difference we need your support and membership. So do spread the word and join us to help make things better for all of us – remember, the work we do affects each one of us, so we are only helping ourselves. And, our membership is simple and free. |
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| Our membership is still short of 1.5 lakhs – can you help us touch 2 lakhs by next month? Click here to become a Member and do share the link https://www.mlfoundation.in/register.html with your friends and family. |
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| Watch Moneylife Videos: We urge you to subscribe to the Moneylife Foundation YouTube Channel and watch our financial literacy and wellness videos and share them – they have helped many people avoid serious financial blunders and resolve issues related to banks, credit scores etc. |
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| Empower Yourself With Our RTI App and Expert Guidance |
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| RTI Advice App पर विस्तृत गाइड से विशिष्ट उपयोग के मामलों के लिए आरटीआई आवेदन दाखिल करने का तरीका जानें। हिंदी और मराठी भाषाओं में उपलब्ध। |
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 Our 'RTI Advice' app and iOS helps you file RTI applications and seek expert guidance in any language – that too by text, video or audio. It already has a database of 900 answered queries in a searchable format. It also has user guides in English, Hindi and Marathi! You can download the app to access these essential guides or even access them from our website here. |
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| Our How To Series |
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| The one resource that will be of immense use to you in times of need is our ‘how to..’ section covering a range of practical issues and difficulties. Take a look… |
1. Succession and inheritance
2 Filing consumer complaints for online shopping
3 Obtaining a legal heir certificate |
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| Moneylife TV & Helplines |
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| With the outbreak of Covid, our physical events and daily clinics for this month continue to remain suspended for the safety and benefit of all those involved. However, in this lockdown period you can still take advantage of our numerous videos of past seminars and workshops which are always available on our YouTube Channel – Moneylife TV and Moneylife News Bites. |
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| If you have a query on housing society, insurance, banking, credit or any other issue, please do become a member of Moneylife Foundation and take advantage of the knowledge imparted by our experts who guide through our helplines. |
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| Register and become a member of Moneylife Foundation, to be added on to our mailing lists, so that you are notified when we announce new webinars and also receive information about our activities and initiatives. |
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| Although in-person counselling has not yet re-started, you can email [email protected] and we can set up zoom calls in certain cases that need detailed explanations. |
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| You also have the option of posting your query on either our Legal Helpline or Credit Helpline. |
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| Also, Moneylife Foundation is now on Telegram and Instagram, so do follow us on these channels to stay updated on our activities and events. |
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| As always, we look forward to your active feedback on issues that you would like us to discuss, and we will do our best to make it happen. Please do write to us at [email protected] |
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| Best regards, |
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| Sucheta Dalal |
| Founder-Trustee, Moneylife Foundation |
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| Trustees: TS Krishnamurthy, Walter Vieira, Sucheta Dalal, Debashis Basu. | | | | Moneylife Foundation is registered with the Charity Commissioner of Mumbai, is an Affiliate member of OECD's International Network on Financial Education, is a Supporter Member of Consumers International, Development Partner of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), and is a winner of the 10th MR Pai Memorial Award. | | |  | | | | Donations are eligible for tax benefits under Sec 80G of the Income Tax 1961 (50% tax exemption) and MLF is registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. 80(G) Reg No: DIT(E)/MC/80G/685/2010-11 dated 7.2.11 effective 8.+9.2010 | FCRA Registration No: 08378138  | | | |
