The Reserve Bank of India had announced in the ‘Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies’ issued as part of the Monetary Policy Statement dated December 4, 2020 that with a view to improve the quality of financial reporting of Supervised Entities (SEs), harmonised guidelines on appointment of Statutory Auditors of Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs), Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) will be issued.

2. Accordingly, a Circular on ‘Guidelines for Appointment of Statutory Central Auditors (SCAs)/ Statutory Auditors (SAs) of Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs), UCBs and NBFCs (including HFCs)’ has been issued today. These Guidelines provide necessary instructions for appointment of SCAs/SAs, the number of auditors, their eligibility criteria, tenure and rotation, etc. while ensuring the independence of auditors. The Guidelines shall become applicable from FY 2021-22 and onwards. However, UCBs and NBFCs shall have the flexibility to adopt these guidelines from H2 of FY 2021-22 so that there is no disruption.

3. The revised Guidelines being issued will ensure that Statutory Auditors are appointed in a timely, transparent and effective manner. This is expected to improve the quality of financial reporting by the aforesaid Entities and also improve the audit quality.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2021-2022/115