Connect 2 Regulate

As announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated October 01, 2025, the Reserve Bank had issued the Foreign Exchange Management (Establishment in India of a Branch Office or a Liaison Office or a Project Office or any other place of business) Regulations, 2016, vide Notification No. FEMA 22(R)/2016-RB. dated March 31, 2016.

BSBD Account is a savings bank account which was introduced with the objective of promoting financial inclusion. The extant instructions on BSBD account require banks to provide certain minimum facilities free of charge, without the requirement of minimum balance, to the holders of such accounts. The ongoing digitalization in the banking sector necessitates a BSBD account that is in sync with the customer’s changing requirements.

The Guidelines on Enhancing Credit Supply for Large Borrowers through Market Mechanism were introduced in August 2016 with an objective to address the concentration risk arising from the aggregate credit exposure of the banking system to a single large corporate and encourage such large corporates to diversify their funding requirements.

With the objective of enforcing credit discipline among borrowers as well as to facilitate better monitoring by lenders, certain restrictions were placed on the operation of Current Accounts (CA), Cash Credit Accounts (CC) and Overdraft Accounts (OD) (“Transaction Accounts”) offered by banks vide various circulars issued from time to time. Based on the experience gained and feedback received, these instructions have been reviewed and it is proposed to ease some of the stipulations and provide greater flexibility to the banks in this regard, particularly in case of borrowers being entities regulated by a financial sector regulator. Accordingly, the draft “Reserve Bank of India (Payments Banks – Transaction Accounts) Directions, 2025” has been issued for public comments.

With the objective of enforcing credit discipline among borrowers as well as to facilitate better monitoring by lenders, certain restrictions were placed on the operation of Current Accounts (CA), Cash Credit Accounts (CC) and Overdraft Accounts (OD) (“Transaction Accounts”) offered by banks vide various circulars issued from time to time. Based on the experience gained and feedback received, these instructions have been reviewed and it is proposed to ease some of the stipulations and provide greater flexibility to the banks in this regard, particularly in case of borrowers being entities regulated by a financial sector regulator. Accordingly, the draft “Reserve Bank of India (Rural Co-operative Banks – Transaction Accounts) Directions, 2025” has been issued for public comments.

With the objective of enforcing credit discipline among borrowers as well as to facilitate better monitoring by lenders, certain restrictions were placed on the operation of Current Accounts (CA), Cash Credit Accounts (CC) and Overdraft Accounts (OD) (“Transaction Accounts”) offered by banks vide various circulars issued from time to time. Based on the experience gained and feedback received, these instructions have been reviewed and it is proposed to ease some of the stipulations and provide greater flexibility to the banks in this regard, particularly in case of borrowers being entities regulated by a financial sector regulator. Accordingly, the draft “Reserve Bank of India (Urban Co-operative Banks – Transaction Accounts) Directions, 2025” has been issued for public comments.

With the objective of enforcing credit discipline among borrowers as well as to facilitate better monitoring by lenders, certain restrictions were placed on the operation of Current Accounts (CA), Cash Credit Accounts (CC) and Overdraft Accounts (OD) (“Transaction Accounts”) offered by banks vide various circulars issued from time to time. Based on the experience gained and feedback received, these instructions have been reviewed and it is proposed to ease some of the stipulations and provide greater flexibility to the banks in this regard, particularly in case of borrowers being entities regulated by a financial sector regulator. Accordingly, the draft “Reserve Bank of India (Local Area Banks – Transaction Accounts) Directions, 2025” has been issued for public comments.

With the objective of enforcing credit discipline among borrowers as well as to facilitate better monitoring by lenders, certain restrictions were placed on the operation of Current Accounts (CA), Cash Credit Accounts (CC) and Overdraft Accounts (OD) (“Transaction Accounts”) offered by banks vide various circulars issued from time to time. Based on the experience gained and feedback received, these instructions have been reviewed and it is proposed to ease some of the stipulations and provide greater flexibility to the banks in this regard, particularly in case of borrowers being entities regulated by a financial sector regulator. Accordingly, the draft “Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Transaction Accounts) Directions, 2025” has been issued for public comments.

The Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025 outlines the framework for submission of credit information by credit institutions (CIs) to credit information companies (CICs), at fortnightly or shorter intervals. On a review, it is proposed to amend the extant instructions and transition to weekly incremental credit information submission by CIs to CICs along with measures to facilitate faster data submission and error rectification. Further, to facilitate aggregation of credit information by CICs, it is proposed to capture Central Know Your Customer (CKYC) number in a separate field in the reporting format of consumer segment. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank has released today, the draft Directions for public consultation.

Circulars on Large Exposures Framework (LEF) dated June 3, 2019, Large Exposures Framework – Credit Risk Mitigation (CRM) for offsetting – non-centrally cleared derivative transactions of foreign bank branches in India with their Head Office (LEF-CRM) dated September 9, 2021, and Guidelines on Management of Intra-Group Transactions and Exposures (ITE) dated February 11, 2014 prescribe prudential norms on a bank’s exposures to its counterparties as also those to its group entities.

The Gold Metal Loan (GML) scheme was introduced in 1998 to facilitate working capital finance to jewellery exporters in the form of raw gold imported by banks. The scheme has been liberalised over the years by, inter alia, allowing banks to extend GML to domestic jewellery manufacturers and also from the gold deposits mobilised under the Gold Monetization Scheme.

Extant instructions on capital adequacy for banks prescribe the Current Exposure Method (CEM) for computation of Counterparty Credit Risk (CCR). The Reserve Bank has reviewed these instructions to (i) clarify that banks acting as clearing members of SEBI recognised stock exchanges in the equity derivatives and commodity derivatives segments are required to maintain capital charge for CCR; and (ii) largely align the add-on factors for calculation of Potential Future Exposure (PFE) in the CEM for ‘Interest Rate Contracts’ and ‘Exchange Rate Contracts and Gold’ with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) guidelines, reflecting the development and depth of the respective market segments since the guidelines were last revised in August 2008.

Reserve Bank of India has been reviewing and rationalising the regulations issued under FEMA, 1999 with an intent to promote ease of doing business. On a review, it has been decided to rationalise regulations pertaining to guarantees issued under FEMA, 1999. Salient features of proposed regulations are as under:

Non-fund based (NFB) facilities like Guarantees, Letters of Credit, Co-Acceptances etc. play a significant role in facilitating effective credit intermediation, besides enabling seamless business transactions, including trade transactions. It has now been decided to harmonize and consolidate guidelines covering these facilities across all REs. The revised guidelines include a review of instructions on issuance of partial credit enhancement by REs, with a view to, inter alia, broadening funding sources for infrastructure financing. Draft Directions in this regard have been issued for public comments.