General / Financial Awareness · 3-5 Qs
Regulators & Financial Institutions
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Study notes
Regulators and Financial Institutions - Revision Sheet
3-5 questions: founding year, headquarters, parent Act and current head. Office holders below are as of October 2026.
1. Financial sector regulators
| Regulator | Established | HQ | Head (as of Oct 2026) |
|---|
| RBI | 1935 (RBI Act 1934) | Mumbai | Governor Sanjay Malhotra |
| SEBI | 1988; statutory 1992 | Mumbai | Tuhin Kanta Pandey (since 1 March 2025) |
| IRDAI | IRDA Act 1999 (Malhotra Committee) | Hyderabad | Ajay Seth (since 1 September 2025) |
| PFRDA | 2003; statutory under PFRDA Act 2013 | New Delhi | Administers NPS and APY |
| IBBI | 1 October 2016 (IBC 2016) | New Delhi | Insolvency regulator |
| IFSCA | 27 April 2020 (IFSCA Act 2019) | Gandhinagar (GIFT City) | Unified regulator for IFSCs |
- The Forward Markets Commission (1953) merged with SEBI on 28 September 2015.
- Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), December 2010, chaired by the Union Finance Minister.
2. Development finance institutions
| Institution | Set up | HQ | Role |
|---|
| IFCI | 1948 | New Delhi | First DFI of India |
| ICICI | 1955 | Mumbai | Became ICICI Bank by reverse merger (2002) |
| IDBI | 1964 | Mumbai | Now IDBI Bank |
| NABARD | 12 July 1982 | Mumbai | Agriculture and rural credit; Sivaraman Committee (CRAFICARD); Chairman Shaji K.V. |
| EXIM Bank | 1 January 1982 | Mumbai | Export-import finance, lines of credit |
| NHB | 9 July 1988 | New Delhi | Housing finance refinance; HFC regulation moved to RBI in 2019 |
| SIDBI | 2 April 1990 | Lucknow | MSME finance; parent of MUDRA |
| MUDRA | 8 April 2015 | Mumbai | Refinance for micro units (SIDBI subsidiary) |
| NaBFID | 2021 (NaBFID Act) | Mumbai | Infrastructure DFI |
NABARD and NHB were once RBI subsidiaries; RBI's stake in both was transferred to the Government of India in 2019. DICGC remains a wholly owned RBI subsidiary.
3. Insurance and guarantee bodies
| Body | Year | HQ |
|---|
| LIC | 1 September 1956 | Mumbai |
| GIC Re (national reinsurer) | 1972 | Mumbai |
| ECGC Ltd | 1957 | Mumbai |
| DICGC | 1978 | Mumbai |
| Agriculture Insurance Company of India | 2002 | New Delhi |
| CGTMSE (Ministry of MSME + SIDBI) | 2000 | Mumbai |
4. Market infrastructure
- BSE: 1875, Asia's oldest stock exchange (Sensex, 30 stocks).
- NSE: incorporated 1992, trading from 1994 (Nifty 50).
- Depositories: NSDL (1996) and CDSL (1999) under the Depositories Act, 1996.
- NPCI: 2008, Mumbai; Section 8 company.
- CERSAI: 2011; also runs the Central KYC Registry.
- Credit information companies: TransUnion CIBIL, Equifax, Experian, CRIF High Mark.
5. International financial institutions
| Body | Founded | HQ | Note |
|---|
| IMF | 1944 (Bretton Woods); operational 1945 | Washington DC | India a founder member |
| World Bank (IBRD) | 1944 | Washington DC | IDA, IFC, MIGA, ICSID are other arms |
| Asian Development Bank | 1966 | Manila | - |
| AIIB | 2016 | Beijing | India is second-largest shareholder |
| New Development Bank (BRICS) | 2015 | Shanghai | First President K.V. Kamath |
| BIS | 1930 | Basel | Hosts Basel Committee |
| FATF | 1989 | Paris | India a full member since 2010 |
| WTO | 1995 | Geneva | Replaced GATT |
6. What each institution actually does
- NABARD: refinances cooperative banks and RRBs for agricultural and rural lending, manages the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF, 1995-96), supervises StCBs, DCCBs and RRBs, and framed the Kisan Credit Card scheme (1998). Banks that miss priority sector targets deposit the shortfall in RIDF and similar funds.
- SIDBI: principal DFI for MSMEs; refinances banks and NBFCs, runs CGTMSE jointly with the Ministry of MSME and owns MUDRA.
- EXIM Bank: export credit, buyer's credit and Government of India lines of credit to developing countries.
- NHB: refinance and supervision support for housing finance companies; runs the RESIDEX housing price index.
- IBBI and the IBC: the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 lets a financial or operational creditor start the corporate insolvency resolution process before the NCLT; the process should finish within 180 days (extendable by 90), with an outer limit of 330 days including litigation.
- PFRDA: regulates the National Pension System (Tier I and Tier II accounts), NPS Vatsalya and the Atal Pension Yojana.
7. Heads to remember (as of October 2026)
| Post | Holder |
|---|
| Union Finance Minister | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| RBI Governor | Sanjay Malhotra |
| SEBI Chairman | Tuhin Kanta Pandey |
| IRDAI Chairman | Ajay Seth |
| NABARD Chairman | Shaji K.V. |
| SBI Chairman | C.S. Setty (since 28 August 2024) |
| Chief Economic Adviser | V. Anantha Nageswaran |
| 16th Finance Commission chair | Arvind Panagariya (award period 2026-31) |
Always re-check office holders a week before the exam; appointments change often and examiners love the latest name.