Personal Finance for India Module 1 – Start here: your money map
Who regulates your money in India
Which regulator stands behind your bank account, insurance, mutual fund or pension, how to check a firm before you pay, and where each complaint goes.
What you will learn
- Match common financial products to the regulator that protects them
- Check whether a broker, lender app or adviser is registered before paying
- Identify which products have no regulator's protection
- Find the complaint route for each regulator
Before you start
What you’ll learn · Before you start
What you will learn
- Match common financial products to the regulator that protects them
- Check whether a broker, lender app or adviser is registered before paying
- Identify which products have no regulator's protection
- Find the complaint route for each regulator
Before you start
On this page
Meera has money in two banks, a deposit with a finance company, a health policy and an NPS account. If any one of them failed her tomorrow, could she say who would step in, whether her ₹9,42,000 of deposits are protected, and where to complain?
Each kind of money in India answers to its own regulator: banks to the RBI, shares and mutual funds to SEBI, insurance to IRDAI and the NPS to PFRDA. Each runs its own lists, checks and complaint route, and some products have no regulator behind them at all. Below you will match products to regulators, see what deposit insurance covers to the rupee, run the checks that take a minute before you pay a firm or a caller, and follow one complaint from a bank to the RBI’s ombudsman. This lesson is education only: it names regulators and their official tools, and it recommends no product or firm.
Each kind of money has its own regulator
A regulator: A public body that licenses or registers the firms in one part of finance, sets their rules, inspects them and handles complaints about them, such as the RBI for banks or SEBI for the securities market. is a public body that licenses or registers the firms in one part of finance, sets their rules, inspects them and handles complaints about them. In India the work is divided by kind of money. The Reserve Bank of India is the regulator and supervisor of banks, regulates the payment and settlement systems, and administers the law on credit information companies; it also regulates the non-banking finance company (NBFC): A company that lends or invests as its main business without being a bank. The RBI regulates those that meet its test of principal business; deposits placed with an NBFC have no deposit insurance. whose main business is finance. SEBI was set up by law “to protect the interests of investors in securities” and to regulate the securities market. Step through seven common kinds of money and the body behind each:
The drawing shows the whole scene; its 7 steps are listed below.
Every step as text
- A bank account. A savings account or a fixed deposit with a bank sits under the Reserve Bank of India, which regulates and supervises banks. Deposits are also insured by DICGC, up to ₹5 lakh per depositor in each bank.
- A lender that is not a bank. A non-banking finance company answers to the RBI too, when its main business is finance, and so do the lending apps it runs. A deposit placed with an NBFC has no DICGC cover.
- Markets and funds. Mutual funds, brokers and investment advisers are registered by SEBI, which regulates the securities market. Registration promises no return; it means rules, inspection and a complaint route.
- Insurance. Insurance companies are regulated by IRDAI, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, which also runs the Bima Bharosa portal for policyholders' complaints.
- Pensions. The National Pension System and Atal Pension Yojana are regulated by PFRDA, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
- Provident fund. Your EPF is run by EPFO, under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, together with the pension scheme (EPS) and the insurance scheme (EDLI) attached to it.
- No one behind it. Digital gold bought on an online platform is neither a security nor a regulated commodity derivative, SEBI says, so none of the securities market's investor protections apply. The dashed line marks the missing regulator.
Six of the seven rows have someone behind them, and each regulator’s role is different. The table sums them up and adds one more home for savings, the small savings schemes that the government runs itself:
| Your money | Who stands behind it | What that gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Bank account or deposit | RBI; deposits insured by DICGC | Rules on banks, deposit insurance, the RBI Ombudsman |
| Mutual fund, broker or adviser | SEBI | Registration, rules, SCORES for complaints |
| Insurance policy | IRDAI | Rules on insurers, Bima Bharosa, the Insurance Ombudsman |
| NPS or APY | PFRDA | Rules on the pension system, a grievance route |
| EPF, EPS and EDLI | EPFO, Ministry of Labour and Employment | The schemes themselves, EPFiGMS for grievances |
| PPF, NSC and other small savings | Ministry of Finance; offered at post offices | Schemes run by the government itself |
Registration never promises a return. What it gives you is a firm that must follow published rules, can be inspected and can be complained about, which is everything a scheme run outside the rules lacks.
Checkpoint
Check: Which regulator stands behind which money
Deposit insurance covers up to ₹5 lakh per bank
DICGC, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation, insures bank deposits and publishes the list of the banks it insures. Its guide says each depositor is insured up to ₹5,00,000 in each bank, for principal and interest together; deposits at different banks are insured separately; and savings, fixed, current and recurring deposits are all covered. Commercial banks, including the Indian branches of foreign banks, local area banks, regional rural banks and co-operative banks are covered, while the deposits of NBFCs are not. The program applies those rules to Meera’s money:
"""How much of Meera's money deposit insurance would cover if a bank failed.
DICGC's guide says each depositor is insured up to Rs 5,00,000 per bank, for principal and interest together; deposits
at different banks are insured separately; deposits with NBFCs are not covered at all. Meera, her banks and her NBFC
are invented for the lesson. Amounts are whole rupees.
"""
COVER_PER_BANK = 500000
# where the money is: (kind of institution, what Meera holds there)
HOLDINGS = {
"Bank A": ("bank", {"Savings account": 180000, "Fixed deposit": 400000, "Interest due on it": 12000}),
"Bank B": ("bank", {"Fixed deposit": 200000}),
"A deposit-taking NBFC": ("nbfc", {"Company deposit": 150000}),
}
def inr(amount):
digits = str(amount)
head, tail = digits[:-3], digits[-3:]
groups = []
while len(head) > 2:
groups.insert(0, head[-2:])
head = head[:-2]
if head:
groups.insert(0, head)
return "₹" + (",".join(groups + [tail]) if groups else tail)
covered_total = held_total = 0
print(f"{'Where':<23}{'Held':>11}{'Covered':>11}{'Not covered':>13}")
for place, (kind, items) in HOLDINGS.items():
held = sum(items.values())
covered = min(held, COVER_PER_BANK) if kind == "bank" else 0
held_total += held
covered_total += covered
print(f"{place:<23}{inr(held):>11}{inr(covered):>11}{inr(held - covered):>13}")
print(f"{'All of it':<23}{inr(held_total):>11}{inr(covered_total):>11}{inr(held_total - covered_total):>13}")
print()
print(f"Bank A holds {inr(sum(HOLDINGS['Bank A'][1].values()))}: everything there, interest included,")
print(f"counts against one cover of {inr(COVER_PER_BANK)}.")
print("The NBFC deposit has no deposit insurance at all.")Output
Where Held Covered Not covered Bank A ₹5,92,000 ₹5,00,000 ₹92,000 Bank B ₹2,00,000 ₹2,00,000 ₹0 A deposit-taking NBFC ₹1,50,000 ₹0 ₹1,50,000 All of it ₹9,42,000 ₹7,00,000 ₹2,42,000 Bank A holds ₹5,92,000: everything there, interest included, counts against one cover of ₹5,00,000. The NBFC deposit has no deposit insurance at all.
Recorded with Python 3.14.8 on macOS 26 arm64. To run it yourself: mise exec python@3.14.8 -- python3 deposit_cover.py
Of her ₹9,42,000, ₹7,00,000 is covered. At Bank A everything counts against one cover of ₹5,00,000, the interest due included, so ₹92,000 there is not insured; Bank B’s ₹2,00,000 is covered in full; the NBFC deposit of ₹1,50,000 has no deposit insurance at all, as the RBI’s own FAQ on NBFCs states. The same guide lists what deposit insurance does not cover: mutual funds, shares, bonds, exchange traded funds and cryptocurrencies are not deposits.
Counting each account at a bank as a separate cover
Wrong: “my savings account and my fixed deposit at the same bank are insured for ₹5 lakh each”. Right: “everything I hold at one bank in the same capacity, interest included, shares one cover of ₹5 lakh”. Spreading money across banks, not across accounts, is what spreads the cover.
Checkpoint
Check: What deposit insurance covers
Check registration before you pay anyone
The cheapest moment to catch a fraud is before you pay, so the checks come first. Each regulator publishes a list: SEBI’s website lists every kind of intermediary it registers, from brokers and depository participants to investment advisers and mutual funds, with a search across all of them, and the RBI publishes the NBFCs it has registered. The payment itself can be checked too. Step through one invented call, check by check:
The drawing shows the whole scene; its 7 steps are listed below.
Every step as text
- Who is asking. A caller says he is from Pebblestone Broking, a broker invented for this lesson, and offers Meera shares "reserved" for her if she pays ₹25,000 today. First she writes down exactly who is asking, the firm, the number and any app or link.
- Listed or not. A broker must be registered with SEBI, and SEBI's website lists every kind of intermediary it registers, with a search across all of them. The RBI publishes the NBFCs it has registered. A firm missing from the list is not one to pay.
- How the money goes. Brokers and mutual funds take payments through validated UPI IDs with an @valid handle, and SEBI Check confirms a UPI ID or a bank account before you pay. A request to pay someone's own UPI ID fails here.
- The real app. The trading app of a SEBI-registered broker carries a Verified label on Google Play. For a loan app, the RBI's website links the list of digital lending apps deployed by the lenders it regulates.
- The real call. SEBI has told the entities it regulates to make service and transaction calls to their customers only from numbers in the 1600 series. A service call from an ordinary ten-digit mobile number is a warning in itself.
- Only then, pay. When every check passes, money moves through the verified route, and the receipt, the contract note or the policy document is kept.
- Stop and report. Meera's caller fails at the second check, because no broker of that name is registered. She stops. Suspected fraud calls can be reported on Chakshu on the Sanchar Saathi portal, and money already sent is reported at once on 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in.
The caller failed at the second check, so no money moved. Every check in the figure comes from an official source:
- The list. SEBI’s list of recognised intermediaries and the RBI’s list of registered NBFCs say whether a firm is allowed to do what it offers.
- The payment. The UPI IDs of SEBI-registered intermediaries that deal with investors carry an @valid handle and a suffix such as .brk or .mf, a thumbs-up inside a green triangle appears when you pay one, and SEBI Check confirms a UPI ID or a bank account.
- The app. A SEBI-registered broker’s trading app shows a Verified label on Google Play, and the RBI’s website links the list of digital lending apps deployed by the lenders it regulates.
- The call. SEBI has told the entities it regulates to use only numbers in the 1600 series for service and transaction calls to their customers.
Checkpoint
Check: Checking a firm before you pay
Some products have no regulator behind them
A product can look like an investment, a deposit or a savings plan and still sit outside every regulator. SEBI warns that digital gold sold by online platforms is not a notified security or a regulated commodity derivative, sits wholly outside its purview, and has none of the securities market’s investor-protection mechanisms. The RBI’s Sachet portal is where the public reports deposits collected without authorisation. The RBI’s FAQ on NBFCs adds that individuals and partnership firms may not accept deposits from the public, and that money circulation and chain schemes are banned under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, 1978, with complaints about them going to the police. The table lists four such offers, the rules that do or do not protect them, and the tell that gives each away:
| What is offered | Whose rules protect it | The tell |
|---|---|---|
| Digital gold on an online platform | No regulator; SEBI warns it is outside its purview | Sold as gold, not as a SEBI-regulated product |
| A “deposit” scheme run by a person or a partnership firm | No one; such deposits are not permitted | High fixed returns, no regulator’s registration |
| A chain scheme that pays for recruiting members | No one; such schemes are banned by law | Income comes from new members, not from sales |
| Tips sold by an unregistered “adviser” | No one; advice on securities needs registration | Not on SEBI’s list, a personal UPI ID |
No registration, no protection
Before paying, ask which regulator registered the firm, and find it on that regulator’s list. If the answer is “no one”, every rupee you pay is outside every regulator’s rules and complaint routes.
Checkpoint
Check: Products with no regulator behind them
Complain to the firm first, then to its regulator
Every regulator’s route starts with the firm itself, and each has a portal for the next step. Take a bank. Under the ombudsman: An official who settles customers' complaints against firms in one sector at no fee, such as the RBI Ombudsman for banks or the Insurance Ombudsman. The complaint must go to the firm first. scheme of the RBI, the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026, which covers banks, deposit-taking and larger NBFCs, non-bank prepaid wallet issuers and credit information companies, a customer must complain to the firm first. If it does not reply within 30 days, or its reply is unsatisfactory, the complaint goes to the RBI’s complaint portal within 90 days, and filing costs nothing. Follow one complaint:
The drawing shows the whole scene; its 6 steps are listed below.
Every step as text
- The bank first. Meera's bank charged her ₹590 for a service it had said was included, and its branch will not reverse it. The scheme asks her to complain to the bank first, in writing, and to keep the reference.
- Thirty days. The bank has 30 days to reply. If it rejects the complaint, or its reply does not satisfy her, she need not wait for the 30 days to pass.
- No answer. Thirty days pass with no reply. Without proof that she complained to the bank first, the ombudsman could reject her complaint, so she keeps the reference and the date.
- File with the ombudsman. She files on the RBI's complaint portal within 90 days of the end of the wait. Filing costs nothing; the contact centre on 14448 explains the procedure but does not take complaints.
- The bank is asked. The ombudsman's office takes up the complaint with the bank, with the documents she attached, and asks for its side.
- The outcome. She follows the complaint on the same portal with its complaint number. If the ombudsman passes an award she disagrees with, she can appeal to the scheme's Appellate Authority within 30 days.
The other routes follow the same shape: the firm first, then the regulator’s system.
| Your complaint is about | First | Then |
|---|---|---|
| A bank, NBFC, wallet or credit bureau | The firm | The RBI Ombudsman, at cms.rbi.org.in |
| A broker, fund, adviser or listed company | The entity | SEBI’s SCORES; online dispute resolution through SMART ODR |
| An insurer | The insurer, directly or through IRDAI’s Bima Bharosa | An Insurance Ombudsman |
| NPS or APY | PFRDA’s Pension Sahayak portal | The NPS Trust after 30 days, then the PFRDA Ombudsman |
| EPF | EPFO’s grievance portal, EPFiGMS | — |
| A deposit scheme run without authority | — | Sachet |
| A money circulation or chain scheme | — | The police, or the State’s Economic Offences Wing |
| Money taken by fraud | — | 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in, at once |
The insurance route has numbers worth remembering: when the insurer does not reply within a month, or the policyholder rejects its reply, the policyholder can go to an Insurance Ombudsman within a year, for claims of up to ₹50 lakh. Like the RBI’s scheme, the Ombudsman charges no fee, and the route starts with a written complaint to the firm.
Key idea
Every route starts with a written complaint to the firm and ends, if needed, at its regulator’s ombudsman or portal: keep the reference and the date, because the next step depends on them.
Checkpoint
Check: Where each complaint goes
Practise: who protects this, and where to go
The questions cover regulators, deposit cover, the checks before paying, unprotected products and complaint routes, and start where your answers have been weakest so far:
Practice that adapts to you
Practise this lesson
15 questions about 5 ideas of this lesson. Each answer is explained at once, and what you get right is kept in this browser.
Interview questions
Warm-up (fresher): What does DICGC deposit insurance cover?
DICGC insures deposits at banks, up to ₹5 lakh per depositor in each bank, for principal and interest together. Savings, fixed, current and recurring deposits are covered, at commercial banks, including the Indian branches of foreign banks, at regional rural banks, local area banks and co-operative banks. Deposits at different banks are insured separately, while all accounts at one bank held in the same capacity share one cover. Deposits with NBFCs are not covered, and neither are mutual funds, shares, bonds, exchange traded funds or cryptocurrencies, because they are not bank deposits.
Warm-up (fresher): Who regulates mutual funds, insurance and the National Pension System in India?
SEBI regulates mutual funds, as part of the securities market, together with brokers and investment advisers. IRDAI regulates insurance companies and runs the Bima Bharosa portal for policyholders’ complaints. PFRDA regulates the National Pension System and Atal Pension Yojana. Banks, NBFCs and payment systems answer to the RBI, while EPF is run by EPFO under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Each regulator keeps its own list of the firms it registers, so the first check before paying is to find the firm on the right list.
Key takeaways
- Each kind of money answers to its own body: banks, NBFCs and payments to the RBI, securities markets and mutual funds to SEBI, insurance to IRDAI, NPS and APY to PFRDA, and EPF to EPFO.
- DICGC insures bank deposits up to ₹5 lakh per depositor in each bank, interest included; NBFC deposits, shares, funds and crypto are not covered.
- Before paying, find the firm on its regulator’s list, pay only through verified routes such as @valid handles, and check apps and calls against the official markers.
- Digital gold on online platforms, unauthorised deposit schemes and tips from unregistered advisers have no regulator’s protection.
- Every complaint goes to the firm first and then to its regulator’s ombudsman or portal, and fraud goes to 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in at once.
Terms in this lesson
- non-banking finance company (NBFC)
- A company that lends or invests as its main business without being a bank. The RBI regulates those that meet its test of principal business; deposits placed with an NBFC have no deposit insurance.
- ombudsman
- An official who settles customers' complaints against firms in one sector at no fee, such as the RBI Ombudsman for banks or the Insurance Ombudsman. The complaint must go to the firm first.
- regulator
- A public body that licenses or registers the firms in one part of finance, sets their rules, inspects them and handles complaints about them, such as the RBI for banks or SEBI for the securities market.
References
- About the Reserve Bank: its main functions (Reserve Bank of India)
- All you wanted to know about NBFCs (FAQ) (Reserve Bank of India)
- A guide to deposit insurance (Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation)
- About SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Recognised intermediaries (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Validated UPI handles and SEBI Check (PR No. 64/2025) (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Verified label for the trading apps of SEBI-registered brokers on Google Play (PR No. 20/2026) (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- The 1600 phone number series for service and transaction calls (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Caution to the public on dealing in digital gold (PR No. 70/2025) (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Digital lending apps deployed by regulated entities (Reserve Bank of India)
- Sachet: reporting deposits collected without authorisation (Reserve Bank of India)
- Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026 (FAQ) (Reserve Bank of India)
- SCORES: SEBI complaints redress system (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
- Mission statement of the Authority (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India)
- Bima Bharosa grievance portal (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India)
- Insurance Ombudsman (Council for Insurance Ombudsmen)
- Grievance redressal for NPS and APY subscribers (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority)
- Employees' Provident Fund Organisation: schemes and grievance redressal (EPFiGMS) (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, Ministry of Labour and Employment)
- Small savings schemes and their rates (National Savings Institute, Ministry of Finance)
- Savings schemes of India Post (Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications)
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India)
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