Regulated Entities (REs) have been extensively leveraging Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS) in their business, products and services with increasing dependence on third parties. Such reliance on IT/ITeS provided by third parties exposes the REs to various risks.

2. It was announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies, released with the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement dated February 10, 2022, that draft guidelines on risk management framework for Outsourcing of IT Services, managing related concentration risk, its periodic risk assessment and aspects of outsourcing of IT Services to foreign service providers, will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

3. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank has released a draft Master Direction on Outsourcing of IT Services, for comments of stakeholders and members of public.

4. Comments / feedback from REs and other stakeholders may be submitted by July 22, 2022 through email with the subject line ‘Feedback on Master Direction on Outsourcing of IT Services’. The final Master Direction shall be issued by Reserve Bank after considering the feedback received.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2022-2023/413