The instructions issued vide the circular are applicable to all credit facilities except those specifically exempted in the circular.

Ans: The options prescribed vide circular on ‘Reset of Floating Interest Rate on Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI) based Personal Loans’ dated August 18, 2023 shall be allowed for housing loans extended by UCBs, subject to the regulations prescribed vide Master Circular on ‘Housing Finance for UCBs’ dated April 11, 2023 or as amended in the future.

Ans. No. In terms of paragraph 29.8 read with item (vii) of Schedule-I of these Directions, savings bank account cannot be opened in the name of a private entity for implementation of the Government funding schemes.

Ans: Since the access to the submission portal is CIN based, any LLP/proprietorship firm that have computer software exports as on end-March of the financial year needs to obtain a dummy CIN Number by sending a request mail on itesquery@rbi.org.in. Once the firm obtains this dummy CIN number from RBI, it can be used to submit the excel (*.xls) file for ITES survey.

However, if any entity has already got the dummy CIN number from the previous survey round, they should use the same CIN number in the current survey round also.

(It is also informed that these dummy CIN numbers are provided by RBI for filling the ITES survey schedule only and should not be used for any other purpose).

Ans. The cardholder can lodge grievance(s) with his / her card issuer. In case the card issuer does not respond within the stipulated time, or the reply so received is not satisfactory, the cardholder shall have recourse to the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021 (as amended from time to time) for redressal.

Answer: No

Ans. Yes. The customer can open an account with a RE by submitting a deemed to be OVD for the purpose of proof of address. However, as mentioned in reply to Q 7 above, he is required to submit OVD with current address within a period of three months.

In terms of the Master Direction on lending to the MSME sector dated July 24, 2017, a cluster has been defined as identified by the Ministry of MSME, Government of India or the respective State /UT Governments. SLBC/UTLBC Convenor banks shall display the list of these clusters on their portals and update them semi-annually as at end-March and end-September. The updated list of clusters identified by Ministry of MSME may be accessed from Ministry's official website, while information on clusters recognized by State Governments/Union Territories shall be obtained directly from the respective authorities.

The lead banks of districts have been advised to promote 'credit-linkage' in all clusters located within the district. The initiatives under promotion of the credit-linkage, include addressing credit needs of MSE units in the clusters, creating awareness among MSE units through financial literacy initiatives, enabling coverage under skill development initiatives and undertaking proactive measures in underbanked clusters.

The banks have also been advised to ensure that the credit needs of clusters are appropriately included in the exercise of preparation of branch/block level credit plans so that the same can be aggregated by lead banks to form the District Credit Plan (DCP) and subsequently by SLBC /UTLBC Convenor banks to prepare the Annual Credit Plan (ACP).