As announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on October 08, 2021, in recognition of the persisting uneven impact of the pandemic on small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities, the SLTRO facility has been extended up to December 31, 2021 and made available on tap, to ensure extended support to these entities.

2. The revised operational guidelines/ details are given in Annex-1.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2021-2022/1023

Annex-1

The revised operational guidelines/ details of the on tap SLTRO scheme are as under:

a) The scheme will remain operational till December 31, 2021.

b) All Small Finance Banks (SFBs) eligible under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) can participate in the Scheme. There is no tenor restriction regarding lending by SFBs under the scheme. However, the SFBs will have to ensure that the amount borrowed from the RBI should at all times be backed by lending to the specified segments till maturity of the SLTRO. Furthermore, SFBs should endeavour to lend within a reasonable period, i.e., not later than 30 days from the date of availing the funds from RBI.

c) The Scheme will now be operationalised on tap. Accordingly, the last tranche of the SLTRO auction due on October 14, 2021, announced vide our Press Release 2021-2022/181 dated May 07, 2021, will not be conducted.

d) SFBs can place requests for funds in the format enclosed in Annex-2, through e-mail. The Reserve Bank will aggregate all such requests received and release funds every Monday (on the subsequent working day if Monday is a holiday) by initiating a 3-year repo contract at repo rate with the requesting bank.

e) If a bank places multiple requests during the week, all such requests will be aggregated, and a single repo contract will be created on the date of operation.

f) Requests from SFBs desirous of availing funds from the RBI will be subject to availability of funds as on the date of application, i.e., funds cannot be guaranteed in case the total amount of ₹10,000 crore is already availed.

g) In case the requested amount exceeds the remaining amount under the scheme on the date of operation, the remaining amount will be distributed on pro-rata basis among all the eligible requests.

h) The Reserve Bank reserves the right to decide the quantum of allotment and /or accept/reject any or all the requests, either wholly/partially, without assigning any reason thereof.

i) The reversal of these operations would take place at the ‘start of day’ on the day of maturity.

j) The eligible collateral and margin requirements will remain the same as applicable for LAF operations. The requesting bank must ensure that sufficient amount of securities is available in its Repo constituent account on the date of operation. All other terms and conditions as applicable to LAF operations, including facility for security substitution, will also be made applicable to the scheme, mutatis mutandis.

k) The amount utilised under the Scheme will be informed to market participants in the Money Market Operations (MMO) press release.

l) All queries/clarifications regarding operational aspects of the facility may be directed to the Financial Markets Operations Department through e-mail and/or telephone (022-22630982). All technical issues may be directed to the e-Kuber Helpdesk through email with a copy to laffmd@rbi.org.in and/or telephone (022-27595662/67/022-27595591/92/93/94).