Ans. No, there are no restrictions towards remittances for current account transactions to Mauritius and Pakistan.

Remittances directly or indirectly to countries identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as “non- cooperative countries and territories”, from time to time; and remittances directly or indirectly to those individuals and entities identified as posing significant risk of committing acts of terrorism as advised separately by the Reserve Bank to the banks are not permissible.

Ans: The exemption can be extended to co-lending arrangements between REs for non-PSL loans subject to the condition that no third party other than the REs in a co-lending transaction should have direct or indirect control over the flow of funds at any point of time.

Ans: RE providing DLG shall deduct full amount of the DLG which is outstanding from its capital.

Ans. Yes, another person may be authorised by the applicant to attend the personal hearing on his behalf but only with proper written authority. It has to be ensured that the person appearing on behalf of the applicant is conversant with the nature of contravention applied for. However, the Reserve Bank encourages the applicant to appear directly for the personal hearing rather than being represented/ accompanied by legal experts/consultants, etc. as the compounding is only for admitted contraventions.

Answer: Yes, a Foreign Portfolio Investor or a Foreign Venture Capital Investor, both registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the relevant SEBI regulations can open and maintain a non-interest bearing foreign currency account for the purpose of making investment in accordance with Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instrument) Rules, 2019.

Ans: Currently, opening of e₹ wallets is linked to user’s saving accounts. This linkage facilitates frictionless user onboarding and obviates the need for separate KYC requirement. Based on the feedback and emerging use cases, new models of user on-boarding are also being explored.

Ans. In terms of paragraph 13 read with paragraph 5 of these Directions, the rate of interest on matured deposits standing in the name of a deceased individual depositor or two or more joint depositors, where one of the depositors has died, will be as per comprehensive policy duly approved by the Board of Directors or any committee of the Board to which powers have been delegated.

Ans.: Total invoice value must be in Indian Rupees (INR) in actuals (which should also include billing to subsidiary(s)/associate(s)) during the reference period.

The following REs of RBI are covered under the RB-IOS, 2021:

(i) Banks: All commercial banks, including Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Local Area Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payment Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks and Non-scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks with deposit size of ₹50 Crore and above, as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;

(ii) NBFCs registered with RBI: All Non-Banking Financial Companies (excluding Housing Finance Companies) which (a) are authorized to accept deposits; or (b) have customer interface, with an assets size of ₹100 crore and above as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;

Note: Core Investment Companies, Infrastructure Debt Fund-Non-banking Financial Companies, Non-Banking Financial Companies-Infrastructure Finance Companies, companies in resolution or winding up / liquidation, or any other NBFC specified by RBI are excluded from the ambit of the RB-IOS, 2021.

(iii) System Participants: All Payment System Participants - banks as well as non-banks regulated by RBI are covered under the RB-IOS, 2021. These entities issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and facilitate transactions over National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) / Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) / Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) / Unified Payments Interface (UPI) / Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) / Bharat QR Code / *99# mobile transaction service using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) / Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), etc.

(iv) Credit Information Companies: All Credit Information Companies as defined in the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) and granted a Certificate of Registration under sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 (30 of 2005).

The list of entities, periodically updated, covered under the RB-IOS, 2021 is available at https://cms.rbi.org.in/cms/assets/Documents/RBIO_English_Portal.pdf.