Ans: As to what is market value, please refer to the answer given against Q1 and 3.

Ans.  A contravener may submit a compounding application form, physically or through PRAVAAH Portal of the Reserve Bank along with the documents/formats provided as Annexure I, Annexure II and Annexure III of the Directions – Compounding of contraventions under FEMA, 1999.

Answer: Opening of accounts by individuals/ entities of Pakistan nationality/ ownership and entities of Bangladesh ownership requires prior approval of the Reserve Bank.

However, individuals of Bangladesh nationality can open an NRO account subject to the individual(s) holding a valid visa and valid residential permit issued by Foreigner Registration Office (FRO)/ Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) concerned.

Further, citizens of Bangladesh/Pakistan belonging to minority communities in those countries, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians residing in India and who have been granted Long Term Visa (LTV) or whose application for LTV is under consideration, are permitted to open only one NRO account with an AD bank in India subject to the conditions mentioned in Notification No. FEMA 5(R)/2016-RB dated April 01, 2016, as updated from time to time. The opening of such NRO accounts will be subject to reporting of the details of the accounts opened by the concerned Authorised bank, to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on a quarterly basis as instructed vide AP (DIR Series) Circular No. 28 dated March 28, 2019.

Reserve Bank of India has deregulated interest rates on advances including education loans sanctioned by Scheduled Commercial Banks. The interest rates are determined by banks with the approval of their respective Board of Directors, subject to regulatory guidelines on interest rate on advances contained in RBI’s Master Direction- Reserve Bank of India (Interest Rate on Advances) Directions, 2016 as updated from time to time.

Ans. No. As the money belongs to the minor child and not the bank’s staff, additional interest cannot be paid, in terms of paragraph 9.1.6 of these Directions.

There have been complaints that life certificates submitted over the counter of pension paying branches are misplaced causing delay in payment of monthly pensions. In order to alleviate the hardships faced by pensioners, agency banks were instructed to mandatorily issue duly signed acknowledgements. They were also requested to consider entering the receipt of life certificates in their CBS and issue a system generated acknowledgement which would serve the twin purpose of acknowledgement as well as real time updation of records. Banks may provide digital acknowledgements in respect of digital life certificates submitted by the pensioners.

Ans: In cases where withdrawal of FMR / removal of name(s) of perpetrator(s) is necessitated due to Court directions, REs may arrange to withdraw FMR / remove name(s) of perpetrator(s) immediately. Such cases shall subsequently be placed before the official in the rank of WTD for information.

Ans.:  Once the survey is launched, MF companies will receive an email from RBI along with the soft copy of the survey schedule (Schedule-4) in excel format as attachment. The company should use this survey schedule to fill in the details. The filled-in survey schedule (Schedule-4) in excel format (.xls format) should be sent by email to mf@rbi.org.in. No other attachments should be forwarded along with the MF survey schedule.

An RBI Ombudsman is a senior official of RBI appointed by RBI to redress the complaints from customers of the REs against “deficiency in service”, as defined under Clause 3(1)(g) of the RB-IOS, 2021. “Deficiency in service” means a shortcoming or an inadequacy in any financial service or such other services related thereto, which the RE is required to provide statutorily or otherwise, which may or may not result in financial loss or damage to the customer.

Ans. No, if an existing KYC compliant customer of an RE desires to open another account or avail any other product/ service from the same RE, he is not required to submit any KYC document unless there is a change in the information with respect to his identity and/ or address.

Ans.: The reference period of an ITES survey round is the immediately preceding financial year (April-March)

Ans: e₹ wallets are safe and secure. There is a robust cyber-security framework to ensure that e₹ is kept secure in the user’s wallet. The e₹ stored in the e₹ wallet is safe even if the mobile device on which the e₹ wallet is installed is lost. The e₹ wallet can be recovered using the same phone number / SIM on a new mobile device.

Default in repayment by the borrower is also a type of non-compliance of material terms and conditions of loan repayment contract by the borrower and penalty, if charged, for such default may only be levied in the form of penal charges and not penal interest. Such penal charges shall be reasonable and levied by the lenders only on the amount under default in a non-discriminatory manner as per their Board approved policy. Further, it must be ensured that there is no capitalization of the penal charges i.e., no further interest computed on such charges.

Ans: Yes, REs have to mandatorily offer fixed interest rate product in all equated installment based personal loan categories. As stated in paragraph 2 (ii) of the circular, REs shall provide the option to the borrowers to switch over to a fixed rate as per their Board approved policy at the time of reset of interest rates.

ಉತ್ತರ. ವ್ಹೈಟ್ ಲೇಬಲ್ ಎಟಿಎಮ್ಗಳನ್ನು ಸ್ತಾಪಿಸಲು ಬ್ಯಾಂಕೇತರ ಘಟಕಕ್ಕೆ ಅವಕಾಶ ನೀಡುವ ನ್ಯಾಯ ಸಮ್ಮತವಾದ ಆಧಾರವೆಂದರೆ ವಿಶೇಷವಾಗಿ ಗ್ರಾಮೀಣ ಪ್ರದೇಶಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ,ಹೆಚ್ಚಿದ /ವರ್ಧಿತ ಗ್ರಾಹಕ ಸೇವೆಗಾಗಿ ಎಟಿಎಮ್ನ ಭೌಗೋಲಿಕ ಹರಡುವಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿಸುವುದಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ.

Response: An eligible depositor can open a Gold Deposit Account with any of the designated banks after meeting the KYC norms. Generally, deposits under the scheme shall be made at the CPTC/GMS Mobilisation, Collection & Testing Agent (GMCTA) which would then test the purity of the customers’ gold in their presence and issue deposit receipts of the standard gold of 995 fineness to the depositor and also inform the customers’ respective bank about acceptance of deposit. The designated bank will credit Short-Term Bank Deposit (STBD) account of the customer, as is applicable, either on the same day of receipt of deposit receipt by the depositor or within 30 days of deposit of gold at CPTC/GMCTA (regardless of whether the depositor submits the receipt or not), whichever is earlier.

Thereafter, the interest on deposits will start accruing from date of conversion of gold deposited into tradable gold bars or 30 days after receipt of gold at the CPTC/GMCTA, whichever is earlier.

Priority sector lending include only those sectors as part of the priority sector, that impact large sections of the population, the weaker sections and the sectors which are employment-intensive such as agriculture, and Micro and Small enterprises. Detailed guidelines on Priority sector lending are available in our Master Directions - Reserve Bank of India (Priority Sector Lending – Targets and Classification) Directions, 2025 dated March 24, 2025 and updated from time to time.

Ans. The monies so collected by the PPI issuers are to be used to make payments to merchants who are part of the acceptance arrangement and for facilitating funds transfer / remittance services on behalf of the PPI holders.

ಹೌದು. 'ಬೇಸಿಕ್ ಸೇವಿಂಗ್ಸ್ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್ ಡಿಪೋಸಿಟ್ ಅಕೌಂಟ್' ಹೊಂದಿದ ಖಾತೆದಾರರು ಅದೇ ಬ್ಯಾಂಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಟರ್ಮ್/ಫಿಕ್ಷ್ಡ್ ಡಿಪೋಸಿಟ್, ರಿಕರಿಂಗ್ ಡಿಪೋಸಿಟ್ ಮುಂತಾದ ಖಾತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಬಹುದು.

All loans meeting the eligibility criteria, unless covered by the specific exclusions listed in Paragraph 2 of the Annex to the Resolution Framework subject to the clarification at Sl. No. 2 above fall within the scope of resolution under the framework. These loans, if not falling under any of the categories mentioned in Paragraph 2 of the Annex to the Resolution Framework, is eligible for resolution under Part A of the Annex if they fall within the purview of “personal loans” as defined in the Circular DBR.No.BP.BC.99/08.13.100/2017-18 dated January 4, 2018 on “XBRL Returns – Harmonization of Banking Statistics”, even if they are not explicitly classified as so in any regulatory / supervisory reporting, or under Part B of the Annex otherwise.

ಉತ್ತರ. ಎನ್ಇಎಫ್ಟಿಯು ಎಲೆಕ್ಟ್ರಾನಿಕ್ ಫಂಡ್ ವರ್ಗಾವಣೆಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯಾಗಿದ್ದು ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರ್ದಿಷ್ಟ ಸಮಯದವರೆಗೆ ಪಡೆದ ವಹಿವಾಟುಗಳನ್ನು ಬ್ಯಾಚ್ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪರಿಷ್ಕರಿಸಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರತಿಕೂಲವಾಗಿ ಆರ್ಟಿಜಿಎಸ್ನಲ್ಲಿ , ಆರ್ಟಟಿಜಿಎಸ್ ವ್ಯವಹಾರದ ಸಮಯಗಳ ಉದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ವಹಿವಾಟಿನ ಆಧಾರದ ಮೂಲಕ ವಹಿವಾಟಿನ ಮೇಲೆ ವಹಿವಾಟುಗಳನ್ನು ನಿರಂತರವಾಗಿ ಪರಿಷ್ಕರಿಸಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

• Index ratio (IR) will be calculated by dividing the reference WPI on the settlement date with the reference WPI on the issue date.

• The formula for the same is as under:

Ans. Yes.  An entity not registered with the Bank may not conduct the business of factoring unless it is an entity mentioned in Section 5 of the Act i.e. a bank or any corporation established under an Act of Parliament or State Legislature, or a Government Company as defined under section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956.

On behalf of GAH, PM needs to submit an access request form to CCIL. The Request would be formally addressed to RBI. However, CCIL has been authorized to directly receive and process Access Request Form from PM for operational convenience. A detailed operation flow is contained in Annexure I.

Ans : NBFCs desirous of sponsoring IDF-MFs are required to comply with the following requirements :

• The NBFC should have a minimum Net Owned Funds (NOF) of Rs.300 crore; and Capital to Risk Weighted Assets (CRAR) of 15%;

• its net NPAs should be less than 3% of net advances;

• it should have been in existence for at least 5 years;

• it should be earning profits for the last three years and its performance should be satisfactory;

• the CRAR of the NBFC post investment in the IDF-MF should not be less than the regulatory minimum prescribed for it;

• The NBFC should continue to maintain the required level of NOF after accounting for investment in the proposed IDF and

• There should be no supervisory concerns with respect to the NBFC.

Like in most countries, banks in India also are required to develop their own individual policy / procedures relating to collection of cheques. The customer is entitled to receive due disclosures from the bank on the bank's obligations and the customers' rights.

Broadly, the policies formulated by banks should cover the following areas:

Immediate credit for local / outstation cheques, Time frame for collection of local / outstation instruments and compensation payable for delayed collection.

The CCPs of various banks are made available on the website of respective bank.

Banks are obliged to disclose their liability to customers by way of compensation / interest payments due to delays for non-compliance with the standards set by the banks themselves. The customer has to be compensated by way of compensation/interest payment even if no formal claim is lodged to the effect.

Banks generally offer either of the following loan options: Floating Rate Home Loans and Fixed Rate Home Loans. For a Fixed Rate Loan, the rate of interest is fixed either for the entire tenure of the loan or a certain part of the tenure of the loan. In case of a pure fixed loan, the EMI due to the bank remains constant. If a bank offers a Loan which is fixed only for a certain period of the tenure of the loan, please try to elicit information from the bank whether the rates may be raised after the period (reset clause). You may try to negotiate a lock-in that should include the rate that you have agreed upon initially and the period the lock-in lasts.

Hence, the EMI of a fixed rate loan is known in advance. This is the cash outflow that can be planned for at the outset of the loan. If the inflation and the interest rate in the economy move up over the years, a fixed EMI is attractively stagnant and is easier to plan for. However, if you have fixed EMI, any reduction in interest rates in the market, will not benefit you.

Determinants of floating rate:

The EMI of a floating rate loan changes with changes in market interest rates. If market rates increase, your repayment increases. When rates fall, your dues also fall. The floating interest rate is made up of two parts: the index and the spread. The index is a measure of interest rates generally (based on say, government securities prices), and the spread is an extra amount that the banker adds to cover credit risk, profit mark-up etc. The amount of the spread may differ from one lender to another, but it is usually constant over the life of the loan. If the index rate moves up, so does your interest rate in most circumstances and you will have to pay a higher EMI. Conversely, if the interest rate moves down, your EMI amount should be lower.

Also, sometimes banks make some adjustments so that your EMI remains constant. In such cases, when a lender increases the floating interest rate, the tenure of the loan is increased (and EMI kept constant).

Some lenders also base their floating rates on their Benchmark Prime Lending Rates (BPLR). You should ask what index will be used for setting the floating rate, how it has generally fluctuated in the past, and where it is published/disclosed. However, the past fluctuation of any index is not a guarantee for its future behavior.

Flexibility in EMI:

Some banks also offer their customers flexible repayment options. Here the EMIs are unequal. In step-up loans, the EMI is low initially and increases as years roll by (balloon repayment). In step-down loans, EMI is high initially and decreases as years roll by.

Step-up option is convenient for borrowers who are in the beginning of their careers. Step-down loan option is useful for borrowers who are close to their retirement years and currently make good money.

Ans: Bonds subscribed by banks and which meet the criteria specified in circular dated April 23, 2010 will continue to be classified under HTM category.

Ans The primary modes of funds transfer at present are demand draft, mail transfer and telegraphic transfer. The demand draft facility is paper based. The remitter, after purchasing demand draft from a bank branch, dispatches the same by post/courier to the beneficiary. The beneficiary, in turn, lodges the draft to his/her bank for collection and clearing. The time taken for completing the process is about 10 days. In the case of telegraphic transfer, fund reaches the beneficiary either on the same day or the next; but both the remitter and the beneficiary would have to be account holders of the same bank. If they are customers of different banks, a good deal of paper processing is required. On the other hand, RBI EFT system is an inter-bank oriented system. RBI acts as an intermediary between the remitting bank and the receiving bank and effects inter-bank funds transfer. The customers of banks can request their respective branches to remit funds to the designated customers irrespective of bank affiliation of the beneficiary.

Ans. The Asian Monetary Units (AMUs) is the common unit of account of ACU and is denominated as ‘ACU Dollar’, ‘ACU Euro’ and ‘ACU Yen’, which is equivalent in value to one US Dollar, one Euro and one Japanese Yen respectively. All instruments of payments under ACU have to be denominated in AMUs. Settlement of such instruments may be made by AD Category-I banks through the ACU Dollar Accounts, ACU Euro Accounts and ACU Yen Accounts, which should be distinct from the other US Dollar, Euro and Japanese Yen Accounts respectively maintained for non ACU transactions. As the payment channel for processing ‘ACU Euro’ is under review, the operations in ‘ACU Euro’ have been temporarily suspended with effect from July 01, 2016 and accordingly, all eligible current account transactions including trade transactions in “Euro” are permitted to be settled outside the ACU mechanism until further notice.

Authorized dealers may release foreign exchange upto USD 100,000 or its equivalent to resident Indians for medical treatment abroad on self declaration basis of essential details, without insisting on any estimate from a hospital/doctor in India/abroad. A person visiting abroad for medical treatment can obtain foreign exchange exceeding the above limit, provided the request is supported by an estimate from a hospital/doctor in India/abroad. This exchange is to meet the expenses involved in treatment and in addition to the amount referred to in paragraph 1 above.

Ans: Bank-wise list of IFSCs is available with all the bank-branches participating in NEFT scheme. List of bank-wise branches participating in NEFT and their IFSCs is also available on the website of RBI at /en/web/rbi/-/list-of-neft-enabled-bank-branches-bank-wise-indian-financial-system-code-updated-as-on-june-30-2023-2009-1. All member banks have also been advised to print the IFSC of the branch on cheques issued to their customers.

Application in the prescribed form (as given in Part I: Annex-I of the FED Master Direction No.18/2015-16 on Reporting under FEMA 1999), along with the required documents should be submitted to the respective Regional Office of the Foreign Exchange Department of the Reserve Bank under whose jurisdiction the registered office of the applicant company falls.

Ans. A person coming into India from abroad can bring with him foreign exchange without any limit. However, if the aggregate value of the foreign exchange in the form of currency notes, bank notes or travellers cheques brought in exceeds USD 10,000 or its equivalent and/or the value of foreign currency alone exceeds USD 5,000 or its equivalent, it should be declared to the Customs Authorities at the Airport in the Currency Declaration Form (CDF), on arrival in India.

Answer: RBI approval is required if:

(i) Remittance is in excess of USD 1,000,000 (US Dollar One million only) per financial year:

1. on account of legacy, bequest or inheritance to a citizen of foreign state, resident outside India; and
2. by NRIs/ PIOs out of the balances held in NRO accounts/ sale proceeds of assets/ the assets acquired by way of inheritance/ legacy.

(ii) Hardship will be caused to a person if remittance from India is not made to such a person.

In case of loss of original token, on a specific request and on payment of prescribed fees, the receipted challan is issued.

An aggregator or facilitator means a Scheduled Bank or Primary Dealer or Specified Stock Exchange permitted to aggregate the bids received from the investors and submit a single bid in the non-competitive segment of the primary auction.

CTS enables fast and cheap realisation of funds to customers as compared to traditional mechanisms. Under grid-based CTS clearing, all cheques drawn on bank branches falling within in the grid jurisdiction are treated and cleared as local cheques. No outstation cheque collection charges to be levied if the collecting bank and the paying bank are located within the jurisdiction of the same CTS grid even though they are located in different cities.

CTS also benefits issuers of cheques. The Corporates if needed can be provided with images of cheques by their bankers for internal requirements, if any.

Ans : The User intending to effect payments through ECS Credit has to submit details of the beneficiaries (like name, bank / branch / account number of the beneficiary, MICR code of the destination bank branch, etc.), date on which credit is to be afforded to the beneficiaries, etc., in a specified format (called the input file) through its sponsor bank to one of the ECS Centres where it is registered as a User.

The bank managing the ECS Centre then debits the account of the sponsor bank on the scheduled settlement day and credits the accounts of the destination banks, for onward credit to the accounts of the ultimate beneficiaries with the destination bank branches.

Further details about the ECS Credit scheme are contained in the Procedural Guidelines and available on the website of Reserve Bank of India at http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/ECSUserView.aspx?Id=1

The Banking Ombudsman can receive and consider any complaint relating to the following deficiency in banking services:non-payment or inordinate delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills etc.;non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of small denomination notes tendered for any purpose, and for charging of commission in respect thereof;non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of coins tendered and for charging of commission in respect thereof;non-payment or delay in payment of inward remittances ;failure to issue or delay in issue of drafts, pay orders or bankers’ cheques;non-adherence to prescribed working hours ;failure to provide or delay in providing a banking facility (other than loans and advances) promised in writing by a bank or its direct selling agents;delays, non-credit of proceeds to parties' accounts, non-payment of deposit or non-observance of the Reserve Bank directives, if any, applicable to rate of interest on deposits in any savings, current or other account maintained with a bank ;complaints from Non-Resident Indians having accounts in India in relation to their remittances from abroad, deposits and other bank related matters;refusal to open deposit accounts without any valid reason for refusal;levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer;Non-adherence to the instructions of Reserve Bank on ATM / Debit Card and Prepaid Card operations in India by the bank or its subsidiariesNon-adherence by the bank or its subsidiaries to the instructions of Reserve Bank on credit card operationsNon-adherence to the instructions of Reserve Bank with regard to Mobile Banking / Electronic Banking service in India by the bankNon-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension (to the extent the grievance can be attributed to the action on the part of the bank concerned, but not with regard to its employees);Refusal to accept or delay in accepting payment towards taxes, as required by Reserve Bank/Government;Refusal to issue or delay in issuing, or failure to service or delay in servicing or redemption of Government securities;Forced closure of deposit accounts without due notice or without sufficient reason;Refusal to close or delay in closing the accounts;Non-adherence to the fair practices code as adopted by the bank;Non-adherence to the provisions of the Code of Bank's Commitments to Customers issued by Banking Codes and Standards Board of India and as adopted by the bank ;Non-observance of Reserve Bank guidelines on engagement of recovery agents by banks;Non-adherence to Reserve Bank guidelines on para-banking activities like sale of insurance / mutual fund /other third party investment products by banksAny other matter relating to the violation of the directives issued by the Reserve Bank in relation to banking or other services.A customer can also lodge a complaint on the following grounds of deficiency in service with respect to loans and advancesnon-observance of Reserve Bank Directives on interest rates;delays in sanction, disbursement or non-observance of prescribed time schedule for disposal of loan applications;non-acceptance of application for loans without furnishing valid reasons to the applicant; andnon-adherence to the provisions of the fair practices code for lenders as adopted by the bank or Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers, as the case may be;non-observance of any other direction or instruction of the Reserve Bank as may be specified by the Reserve Bank for this purpose from time to time.The Banking Ombudsman may also deal with such other matter as may be specified by the Reserve Bank from time to time.

Yes. The reserved amount will be within the notified amount.

In terms of GOI notification No.SO.301(E) dated March 30, 2001, banks are free to allow remittance for maintenance of close relatives abroad not exceeding net salary (after deduction of taxes, contribution to provident fund and other deductions) of a person who is resident but not permanently resident in India and is a citizen of a foreign state other than Pakistan. Therefore, independent of QA 22 procedure, they may allow remittance of net salary.

Remittance of partly paid invoices is permissible, subject to total remittance not exceeding the amount indicated in the invoice. In terms of the extant guidelines, although the advertisement charges can be accepted in advance, along with the text of the advertising matter, by the Indian channel agent, the remittance can be made by the AD, only after the advertisements are telecast abroad and invoices raised thereafter, and subject to submission of the requisite documents as stated at (4) above such as invoice, tax declaration/deduction certificate, certificate from Chartered Accountant regarding foreign exchange earning in the past 2 years.

An application for repatriation of balance may be made on plain paper to the concerned Regional Office of Reserve Bank.

1. Any clarification in respect of specific cases could be obtained from the Reserve Bank’s Central office at the following address:

Overseas Investment Division,
Exchange Control Department,
Central office,
Reserve Bank of India,
Mumbai 400001.
or
e-mail: oid@rbi.org.in

Person going abroad for employment can draw foreign exchange upto US$5,000 from any authorised dealer in India.

1. A first time user should register through ATS using his/her valid email id.

2. A system generated Password will be forwarded to the applicant’s email id.

3. Thereafter, the applicant can login and submit his/her application and track the same.

4. As soon as an application is submitted through ATS, a unique application number is generated and forwarded to the applicant by the system.

5. A mail is sent by the system automatically when the application is disposed of or transferred from one office / department / section to another.

Banks are prohibited from employing / engaging any individual, firm company, association, institution for collection of deposits or selling of deposit linked products on payment of remuneration or fees or commission in any form or manner exceptcommissionpaid to agents employed to collect door to door deposits under a special scheme

The deposits kept in different branches of a bank are aggregated for the purpose of insurance cover and a maximum amount of upto Rupees five lakhs is paid.

Ans. Yes. Under this facility, cash can be withdrawn from PoS terminal(s) at designated merchant establishment(s), irrespective of the fact whether the card issuer and the acquiring bank are same or not.