Connect 2 Regulate

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.

Non-fund based (NFB) facilities like Guarantees, Letters of Credit, Co-Acceptances etc. play a significant role in facilitating effective credit intermediation, besides enabling seamless business transactions, including trade transactions. It has now been decided to harmonize and consolidate guidelines covering these facilities across all REs. The revised guidelines include a review of instructions on issuance of partial credit enhancement by REs, with a view to, inter alia, broadening funding sources for infrastructure financing. Draft Directions in this regard have been issued for public comments.