It has taken more than 20 years of bank branches mis-selling financial products to depositors for the central bank to give some teeth (though clearly not enough) to the regulations to counter this. Meanwhile, several thousand crores of rupees have been lost to mis-selling, unsuitable sales, and open cheating. This has destroyed lives, retirement corpuses, and families. The Reserve Bank of India (All India Financial Institutions – Responsible Business Conduct) Second Amendment Directions, 2026 — released on June 15 and set to be implemented from January 1, 2027 — are aimed in the right direction but may prove far from effective on the ground. Bank-branches have tasted blood, and the amended rules — clearly another candidate for classification as tick-box regulations — will do nothing to keep them off depositors. When mis-selling practices reach vulnerable, first-time financialised Indians in the villages, a return to land and gold as investment options is inevitable.
