



Mis-selling malaise: RBI's recent proposals are welcome but not enough to curb malpractices
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued draft amendments to its Responsible Business Conduct Regulations. These cover the advertising, marketing and sales of financial products and services by banks, non-bank financial companies and other all-India financial institutions either by their own staff or by direct sales or marketing agents. The most consequential element in RBI’s proposals is that for the first time they define ‘mis-selling’ to include any sale of a product or service that is neither suitable nor appropriate for a customer profile even with customer consent.
Providing incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information, compulsorily bundling products or engaging in dark patterns will also constitute mis-selling. The fact that consumer consent alone will not be enough to defend a sale dismantles one of the industry’s most cynically deployed defences against consumer complaints. RBI’s prohibition on compulsory bundling is equally significant.
Tying insurance policies to loan disbursals, unit-linked insurance policies to locker access or mutual funds to savings accounts has been one of the most systematic forms of financial mis-selling in India. Provisions against dark patterns—or interfaces designed to trick or manipulate online users into action—were overdue. False urgency, drip pricing, subscription traps, pre-ticked boxes and trick wording are named explicitly.
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