Connect 2 Regulate

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Credit Facilities) Directions 2025 has been issued for public comments.

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Credit Risk

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Acquisition and Holding of Shares or Voting Rights) Directions

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Undertaking of Financial Services) Directions 2025 has been issued for public comm

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Universal Banks – Licensing) Guidelines, 2025 has been issued for public comments.

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Universal Banks – Licensing) Guidelines, 2025 has been issued for public comments.

With a view to consolidate the existing regulatory instructions on the topic on an ‘as-is’ basis, the draft of Reserve Bank of India (Universal Banks – Licensing) Guidelines, 2025 has been issued for public comments.

The list of regulatory instructions that could be withdrawn / repealed, once the consolidated Master Directions are finalised, has been issued for public comments. 
Additional comments or any attachments may also be submitted by email at feedbackconsoldor@rbi.org.in.

The proposed Directions seek to replace the incurred-loss-based provisioning framework with an ECL based provisioning, subject to prudential floors. These are  expected to further strengthen credit risk management practices, promote greater comparability across financial institutions, and align regulatory norms with internationally accepted regulatory and accounting standards.

The proposed Directions seek to replace the incurred-loss-based provisioning framework with an ECL based provisioning, subject to prudential floors. These are  expected to further strengthen credit risk management practices, promote greater comparability across financial institutions, and align regulatory norms with internationally accepted regulatory and accounting standards.

The proposed Directions seek to implement one of the key elements of the global reforms implemented by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), suitably tailored to the Indian context. The Directions amend the existing standardised approach framework for calculating the capital charge for credit risk with the objective of enhancing its robustness, granularity, and risk sensitivity.

The Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 launched on November 12, 2021, provides customers of Regulated Entities (REs) a speedy, cost-effective and expeditious alternate grievance redress mechanism. Based on the operational experience, stakeholder feedback, and global best practices, the Reserve Bank has undertaken a comprehensive review of the Scheme.

The Reserve Bank, vide Master Direction - Reserve Bank of India (Internal Ombudsman for Regulated Entities) Directions, 2023 dated December 29, 2023, has institutionalized the Internal Ombudsman mechanism in various regulated entities (REs) for independent review of customer complaints that are being rejected. A holistic review of the existing instructions has been undertaken to further strengthen the functioning of the Internal Ombudsman with a view to facilitating faster and meaningful resolution of customer grievances at the level of the REs.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lender    either through ownership stake in the lender or through their ability to    control and influence the lending decisions may prove to be detrimental to    the interests of the and other stakeholders. Globally, there are regulations    on such related party lending and transactions which might create a conflict    of interest or moral hazard for the lenders.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be ad

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

Lending to counterparties who are related or connected to the lenders either through ownership stake in the lending entity or through their ability to control and influence the lending decisions entail conflict of interest or moral hazard issues for the lenders. The draft Directions being issued provide a harmonised, principle-based framework to be adopted by REs for managing such risks, suitably rationalising the existing provisions.

As announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated October 01, 2025, it has been decided to rationalize regulations pertaining to External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) included in the Foreign Exchange Management (Borrowing and Lending) Regulations, 2018 issued under FEMA, 1999. Salient features of proposed regulations are as under:

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 (Regional Rural 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 (Small Finance 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:

Under the provisions of Banking Regulation Act, 1949, nomination facility is available in respect of deposit accounts, articles kept in safe custody or safe deposit lockers. This is intended to facilitate expeditious settlement of claims or return of articles or release of contents of safe deposit locker upon death of a customer and to minimise hardship caused to family members. The extant instructions require banks to adopt a simplified procedure to facilitate expeditious and hassle-free settlement of claims made by survivors/ nominees/ legal heirs in case of deposit accounts up to a threshold limit, however, the procedures vary across banks. With a view to enhance customer service standards, it has been decided to streamline the procedures and standardise the documentation to be submitted to the banks. Accordingly, Reserve Bank has released today the draft circular in this regard for public consultation.

The Reserve Bank of India has, from time to time, issued several instructions/ guidelines to co-operative banks, i.e., Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs), State Co-operative banks (StCBs) and District Central Co-operative banks (DCCBs), related to permission for place of business, change of name and scheduling, etc.

The Reserve Bank has issued guidelines / instructions / directives from time-to-time governing internet and mobile banking services offered by various categories of banks. These services have evolved significantly since issue of the initial guidelines in 2001 as new and innovative digital channels / platforms have come into use. To facilitate sustainable growth of digital banking services, it has been decided to consolidate, strengthen, and update the existing instructions on use of digital channels for providing banking services including internet and mobile banking services by banks.  The draft Master Directions in this regard are being issued today for stakeholder feedback.

Reserve Bank of India introduced the EDPMS to monitor the realisation of funds against exports in February, 2014. In due course, the flow of shipping bills from the Customs Authority has been automated through ICEGATE and from January, 2022, data from ECCS (Express Cargo Clearance System) also started flowing into EDPMS. Further, postal exports bill data also started flowing into EDPMS from January, 2025.

Please refer to instructions at paragraph 6.1 of the circular captioned Inoperative Accounts/ Unclaimed Deposits in Banks - Revised Instructions, dated January 1, 2024. Reserve Bank has released today the draft circular on Inoperative Accounts/ Unclaimed Deposits in Banks – Revised Instructions (Amendment) 2025 which modifies the aforementioned instructions.

Please refer to instructions on Updation/ Periodic Updation of KYC as contained in paragraph 38 of Master Direction - Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016 dated February 25, 2016 (as amended from time to time). Reserve Bank has released today the draft circular on Updation/ Periodic Updation of KYC – Revised Instructions which encloses the draft Reserve Bank of India (Know Your Customer (KYC)) (Amendment) Directions, 2025 modifying the aforementioned instructions.

The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020 has enabled certain capital related provisions such as issuance of special shares, issuance of shares at a premium, etc., which are new to the co-operative banking sector. The Report of the Expert Committee on Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (the Expert Committee), chaired by Shri. N.S. Vishwanathan, former Deputy Governor, RBI, had provided broad guiding principles on these provisions through its recommendations. Thereafter, a Working Group was constituted in RBI to inter alia operationalise the recommendations of the Expert Committee on these newly enabled capital related provisions.