No. As the money belongs to the minor child and not the bank’s staff, additional interest cannot be paid.

Ans: If an entity has not ‘received any fresh FDI and/or ODI (overseas direct investment)’ in the latest FY but has outstanding FDI and/or ODI as at end-March of that financial year, then it is required to submit their outstanding position as on March 31 in the FLA return every year by July 15.

Indian Agents need permission from the Regional Office concerned of the Foreign Exchange Department, Reserve Bank of India to operate under the MTSS framework. Further, the Overseas Principal also need to obtain necessary authorisation from the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, Reserve Bank of India under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act (PSS Act), 2007.

Ans: No, only investments in companies registered under Section 3 of the Companies Act 1956 would be regarded as investments in Group companies for the purpose of calculating 90% investment in Group companies. Moreover, CICs are prohibited from contributing capital to any partnership firm or to be partners in partnership firms including Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) or any association of person similar in nature to partnership firms.

The prudential norms relating to income recognition, accounting standards, asset classification, provisioning against bad and doubtful debts are the norms which have a bearing on disclosure of true and fair picture of the financial health of the NBFC. These companies normally borrow from other corporate bodies as also from banks and financial institutions. These are also the companies which may commence accepting public deposits at short notice. It is necessary that their Balance Sheets on which all the lenders would rely should be transparent and clean, else these companies would be able to inflate their profits and conceal the decline in the value of their investments as also unprovided NPAs. Such companies might turn out to be potential defaulters in servicing their borrowings from the financial system. The exemptions from capital adequacy and credit/ investment concentration norms have been given because public deposits are not involved.

Yes. You can continue to use, withdraw or transfer to another wallet or bank account upto the balance available in the wallet. Minimum KYC wallets can, however, be used only for merchant payments

Ans: The survey collects details of portfolio investment assets of domestic residents made in securities issued by unrelated non-residents i.e., securities issued by unrelated non-residents and owned by residents.

Clarification: In the case of bank’s lending to NBFCs / MFIs / HFCs for on-lending, only that portion of the portfolio should be reckoned for PSL classification that has been disbursed by the NBFC / MFI / HFC to the ultimate borrower/s as on the reporting date. The reckoning of residual portfolio, if any, can be done on subsequent reporting dates, based on the disbursement of eligible loans and reported by the NBFC / MFI / HFC to the bank.

Clarification: The Master Directions on Priority Sector Lending, 2020 under para 21, 22, 23 allows banks to classify as PSL its lending to NBFCs including HFCs and NBFC-MFIs and other MFIs (Societies, Trusts etc.) which are members of RBI recognised SRO for the sector for on-lending to eligible priority sectors. Banks may adopt a uniform methodology for on-lending as follows:

a) Classification under PSL:

• The banks can classify on-lending to NBFC in the respective categories of PSL. The classification will be allowed only when the NBFC has disbursed the Priority Sector Loans to the ultimate beneficiary after receiving the funds from the bank.

• The NBFCs must provide a CA certificate to the banks stating that the individual loans of the portfolio, against which on-lending benefit is being claimed, are not being used to claim benefit from any other bank(s). Also, NBFC must put in place a suitable process to flag such loan(s) in their systems to enable its internal/statutory auditors as well as RBI supervisors to verify the same.

b) Information sharing:

• The banks may devise internal control mechanisms to ensure that the portfolio under on-lending is PSL compliant and adheres to co-terminus clause. The same should be made available to RBI supervisor/s as and when required. The following information/record should be collected by the bank from the EI:

1. Name of the beneficiary, Amount sanctioned, Loan amount outstanding, Loan tenure, disbursement date, category of PSL.

2. A statement to the effect that the portfolio is PSL compliant must be certified by a CA and shared by the EI with the bank on a quarterly basis in line with the PSL reporting by the bank to RBI. With respect to adherence to the co-terminus clause, the bank should ensure the same as on March 31 each year.

c) Adherence to co-terminus condition:

• The banks availing benefit of on-lending for PS assets must adhere to the condition that the tenure of the loan under on-lending to an EI is broadly co-terminus with the tenure of PS assets created by the EI.

• In view of the operational difficulties of exactly matching the co-terminus duration, the banks are allowed a variance of 3 months from the portfolio duration. An illustration for calculating adherence to the co-terminus duration is given below:

Sr. No.	Loan outstanding (A)	31st March of current FY (B)	Loan end date (C)	Loan period (days) (D= C-B)	Weighted average loan outstanding days (E=A*D)
1	50000	31-03-21	01-02-23	672	33600000
2	80000	31-03-21	01-05-24	1127	90160000
3	100000	31-03-21	11-08-23	863	86300000
4	300000	31-03-21	16-10-22	564	169200000
5	400000	31-03-21	23-11-22	602	240800000
Total	930000				620060000
	Weighted maturity of portfolio in days (F=(sum of E)/(sum of A)				666.73
	In months (F/30)				22.22
	In years (F/365)				1.83

In the above illustration, the residual maturity of bank loan to NBFC should be around 22.22 months. Banks are expected to calculate the weighted average residual maturity of portfolio ever year as on March 31 and ensure that residual maturity of bank loan to NBFC matches with the weighted average residual maturity of on-lending portfolio within the tolerance limit of +-3 months.

d) Treatment of pre-payment, foreclosure loans:

• The PS assets created by the entity may undergo pre-payment or foreclosure thereby changing the ‘weighted maturity’ of the portfolio.

• As the banks are required to calculate ‘weighted maturity’ at the end of FY, the loan outstanding in the event of pre-payment/foreclosure will also change accordingly.

• The NBFC may add PS assets to the on-lending portfolio. However, it must meet conditions mentioned above such as disbursements for the PS asset by the eligible entity must be on/after receipt of funds from the bank. The addition of PS assets to the portfolio pool can also be done in case of pre-payment/foreclosure of other PS assets in the pool to ensure adherence to the co-terminus clause.

Clarification: Bank lending to NBFCs (other than MFIs) and HFCs are subjected to a cap of 5% of average PSL achievement of the four quarters of the previous financial year. In case of a new bank the cap shall be applicable on an on-going basis during its first year of operations. The prescribed cap is not applicable for bank lending to registered NBFC-MFIs and other MFIs (Societies, Trusts, etc.) which are members of RBI recognised ‘Self-Regulatory Organisation’ of the sector. Bank lending to such MFIs can be classified under different categories of PSL in accordance with conditions specified in our Master Directions FIDD.CO.Plan.BC.5/04.09.01/2020-21 dated September 04, 2020 and updated from time to time.

Ans.: Indian company which has entered into an agreement with a foreign entity in terms of technology transfer, know-how transfer, use of patent, brand name etc, then such type of agreement are treated as Foreign Technical Collaborations (FTC).

RDG Account can be opened and maintained with RBI free of cost.Know Your Customer (KYC) related queries

Ans: This condition applies only to the fourth TLTRO conducted on April 17, 2020. It does not apply to the TLTROs conducted before April 17, 2020. It also does not apply to TLTRO 2.0.

The highest denomination note ever printed by the Reserve Bank of India was the ₹10000 note in 1938 which was demonetized in January 1946. The ₹10000 was again introduced in 1954. These notes were demonetized in 1978.

It is illegal for any financial entity or unincorporated body to make a false claim of being regulated by the Reserve Bank to mislead the public to collect deposits and is liable for penal action under the Indian Penal Code. Information in this regard may be forwarded to the nearest office of the Reserve Bank and the Police.

Banks can formulate special fixed deposit schemes specifically for senior citizens offering higher and fixed rates of interest as compared to normal deposits on any size.

Ans: If the Partnership firms, Branches or Trustees have any outward FDI outstanding as on end-March of the latest FY, then they are required to file the FLA return.

You may refer to /documents/87730/39016390/12EC160712_A6.pdf for illustration purposes.

Only cross-border personal remittances, such as, remittances towards family maintenance and remittances favouring foreign tourists visiting India are allowed under this arrangement. Donations/contributions to charitable institutions/trusts, trade related remittances, remittance towards purchase of property, investments or credit to NRE Accounts are not allowed through this arrangement.

Ans: No, they are only exempt from norms regarding submission of Statutory Auditor Certificate regarding continuance of business as NBFC, capital adequacy and concentration of credit / investments norms.

The investment companies which have at least 90 per cent of their total assets (not total investments alone) in the securities issued by their group/subsidiary/holding companies are the core investment companies. The other two conditions are that they should not accept public deposits and should not trade in these shares. All the three conditions are required to be complied with fully. If any company fails to comply with even one of these three conditions, it is not entitled to the total exemptions from the provisions of Reserve Bank Directions on Acceptance of Public Deposits and Prudential Norms. In such a situation, the company would fall either in the category of public deposit taking company (if it has accepted public deposits) and be subject to all the regulations of RBI or in the category of general investment company and be subject to prudential norms to the extent these are applicable to it.

No. After March 15, 2024 you will not be able to top-up or transfer money into the wallet or receive any credits, other than cashbacks, or refunds into this wallet.

Ans: The portfolio investment assets are required to be reported on marked to market basis as at the end of the reference period, with the breakups into type of securities viz., equity securities, short-term debt securities (with and original maturity of up to one year) and long-term debt securities (with an original maturity of more than a year) and country of residence of issuer.

Clarification: While the guidelines allow sharing of risks and rewards between the bank and the NBFC for ensuring appropriate alignment of respective business objectives, the priority sector assets on the bank’s books should at all times be without recourse to the NBFC.

Clarification: Only if the bank can exercise its discretion regarding taking into its books the loans originated by NBFC as per the Agreement, the arrangement will be akin to a direct assignment transaction. If the Agreement entails a prior, irrevocable commitment on the part of the bank to take into its books its share of the individual loans as originated by the NBFC, it shall not be akin to direct assignment transaction.

Clarification: Both entities, the bank & the NBFC shall be guided by the bilateral Master Agreement entered by them for implementing the Co-lending Model (CLM). The agreement may state any cap on the number and amount of loans that can be originated by the NBFC under the Co-lending model.

Clarification: If the Agreement entails a prior, irrevocable commitment on the part of the bank, it has been advised that the partner bank and NBFC shall have to put in place suitable mechanisms for ex-ante due diligence by the bank. Such due diligence should ensure compliance with RBI regulations on KYC and outsourcing of activities before disbursal of the loans by the NBFC.

Clarification: Back-to-back basis implies that the loans will be first opened by NBFC and then bank will open loan accounts subsequently.

Clarification: The bank and the NBFC can decide on this aspect as per the Master agreement between them.

Ans: FLA return and Annual Performance Report (APR) for ODI are two different returns and monitored by two different departments of RBI. So, you are required to submit both the returns if these are applicable for your entity. For more information on APR, please refer to the Master Direction – Reporting under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 on RBI’s website.

Ans.: An Indian company is called as a Foreign Subsidiary if a non-resident investor owns more than 50 per cent of the voting power / equity capital or where a non-resident investor and its subsidiary(s) combined own more than 50 per of the voting power / equity capital of an Indian enterprise.

There are two ways of doing KYC verification – CKYC based and video KYC.

The paper currently being used for printing of banknotes in India is made by using 100% cotton.

If companies that are required to be registered with the Reserve Bank as NBFCs, are found to be conducting non-banking financial activity, such as, lending, investment or deposit acceptance as their principal business, without seeking registration, the Reserve Bank can impose penalty or fine on them or can even prosecute them in a court of law. If members of public come across any entity which does non-banking financial activity but does not figure in the list of authorized NBFC on RBI website, they should inform the nearest Regional Office of the Reserve Bank, for appropriate action to be taken for contravention of the provisions of the RBI Act, 1934.

Savings bank account cannot be opened in the name of the Government Department/ Government Scheme, except in respect of deposits of Government organizations/ agencies listed below:

1. Primary Co-operative Credit Society which is being financed by the bank.

2. Khadi and Village Industries Boards.

3. Agriculture Produce Market Committees.

4. Societies registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860 or any other corresponding law in force in State or a Union Territory.

5. Companies governed by the Companies Act, 1956 which have been licensed by the Central Government under Section 25 of the said Act, or under the corresponding provision in the Indian Companies Act, 1913 and permitted, not to add to their names the word “Limited” or the words “Private Limited”.

6. Institutions other than those mentioned in clause (i) above and whose entire income is exempt from payment of income tax under Income-Tax Act, 1961.

7. Government departments/ bodies/ agencies in respect of grants/ subsidies released for implementation of various programmes/ Schemes sponsored by Central Government/ State Governments subject to production of an authorisation from the respective Government departments to open savings bank accounts.

8. Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA).

9. Self-help Groups (SHGs), registered or unregistered, which are engaged in promoting savings habits among their members.

10. Farmers’ Clubs – Vikas Volunteer Vahini (VVV).

A cap of USD 2,500 has been placed on individual remittances under the scheme. In addition, thirty remittances can be received by a single individual beneficiary under the scheme during a calendar year.

Ans: Yes, as they are regulated by RBI, they would require NOC from Department of Non-Banking Supervision (DNBS) for making investments in the financial sector. However, a registered CIC making investments in the non-financial sector need not obtain prior approval from the Department of Non-Banking Supervision (DNBS), RBI. It will only need to report such investments to the Department within 30 days of such investment.

Ans: In terms of the press release 2237/2019-2020 dated April 17, 2020 notifying the TLTRO 2.0 scheme, at least 50 per cent of the total funds availed under the scheme has to be deployed in specified securities issued by small NBFCs of asset size of ₹ 500 crores and below, mid-sized NBFCs of asset size between ₹ 500 crores and ₹ 5000 crores and MFIs. The objective is to ease any liquidity stress and/or impediments to market access that these small and mid-sized entities might be facing. In order to incentivise banks’ investment in the specified securities of these entities, it has been decided that a bank can exclude the face value of such securities kept in the HTM category from computation of adjusted non-food bank credit (ANBC) for the purpose of determining priority sector targets/sub-targets. This exemption is only applicable to the funds availed under TLTRO 2.0.

The definition of NOF has been provided in Section 45IA of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. This definition would be applicable to the computation of minimum capital fund for the purpose of Statutory Registration of an NBFC with the Reserve Bank of India. For the purpose of acceptance of public deposit and compliance of the prudential norms, the definition of NOF has been modified and it would include the paid up amount of preference shares which are compulsorily convertible into equity. However, the redeemable preference share capital would not be included in the definition of NOF or the Owned Fund.

No.

Yes. Refunds and cashbacks are allowed to be credited.

Ans: Reporting entities should report the data in the unit mentioned in the survey schedule (for eg., INR Lakh).

Ans.: An Indian company is called as Foreign Associate if non-resident investor owns at least 10% and no more than 50% of the voting power/equity capital or where non-resident investor and its subsidiary(s) combined own at least 10% but no more than 50% of the voting power/equity capital of an Indian enterprise.

1. Enter your PAN card number and date of birth to retrieve details available in CKYC.

2. Provide address details, scanned copy of your signature, bank account details and nominee details.

3. Authenticate the user agreement form using Aadhaar by submitting the OTP sent on your mobile number linked to Aadhaar.

Ans: The funds availed under TLTRO 2.0 are to be deployed in investment grade bonds, commercial paper (CPs) and non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and MFIs in the manner outlined in the press release dated April 17, 2020.

Fifteen languages are appearing in the language panel of banknotes in addition to Hindi prominently displayed in the centre of the note and English on the reverse of the banknote.

The list of registered NBFCs is available on the web site of Reserve Bank of India and can be viewed at www.rbi.org.in → Sitemap → NBFC List. The instructions issued to NBFCs from time to time are also hosted at www.rbi.org.in → Notifications → Master Circulars → Non-banking, besides, being issued through Official Gazette notifications and press releases.

1. In the case of term deposit standing in the name/s of a deceased individual depositor, or two or more joint depositors, where one of the depositor has died, the criterion for payment of interest on matured deposits in the event of death of the depositor in the above cases has been left to the discretion of individual banks subject to their Board laying down a transparent policy in this regard.

2. In the case of balances lying in current account standing in the name of a deceased individual depositor/ sole proprietorship concern, interest should be paid only from May 1, 1983 or from the date of death of the depositor, whichever is later, till the date of repayment to the claimant/s at the rate of interest applicable to savings deposit as on the date of payment. However, in the case of NRE deposit, if the claimants are residents, the deposit on maturity is treated as domestic rupee and interest is paid for the subsequent period at a rate applicable to the domestic deposit of similar maturity.

Ans: If all non-resident shareholders of an entity have transferred their shares to the residents during the reporting period and the entity does not have any outstanding investment in respect of inward and outward FDI as on end-March of the latest FY, then the entity need not submit the FLA return.

Yes, however, the ECB should have minimum average maturity period of 5 years.

Amounts up to INR 50,000/- may be paid in cash to a beneficiary in India. These can also be loaded on to a pre-paid card issued by banks. Any amount exceeding this limit shall be paid by means of account payee cheque/ demand draft/ payment order, etc., or credited directly to the beneficiary's bank account. However, in exceptional circumstances, where the beneficiary is a foreign tourist, higher amounts may be disbursed in cash.

Ans: Exempted CICs desirous of making overseas investment in financial sector shall first need to hold a Certificate of Registration (CoR) from Reserve Bank of India (the Bank) and will have to comply with all the regulations applicable to registered CIC-ND-SI. However, they need not obtain NOC from the Bank if their investments overseas are in the non-financial sector.

A. As per the new Regulatory framework, there is no overall ceiling on the borrowings of NBFCs. However, limits have been prescribed for acceptance of Public Deposits as indicated here.

Level of credit rating	Ceiling on public deposits (as a multiple of NOF)
	EL/HP Cos.	LC/ICs
AAA	4.0	2.0
AA	2.5	1.0
A	1.5	0.5
A - (CRISIL & ICRA) }
BBB (CARE) }	0.5	Nil
BBB- (DCR India) }

It is to be noted that there is an in-built ceiling on the total borrowings of the NBFCs accepting deposits from public, because they are required to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 10 per cent of their risk weighted assets effective from 31.3.1998 and 12 per cent from 31.3.1999. Their capacity to create assets and raise corresponding borrowings will be restricted because of capital adequacy norms.

Yes. You may approach Paytm Payments Bank or use its banking app to close your wallet and transfer the balance to an account maintained with another bank in the case of full KYC wallets. In the case of minimum KYC Wallets , you may use the available balance or request for a refund

Ans: If the responding entity does not have any portfolio investment asset during the reference period, then that entity is required to submit NIL survey schedule to the generic email ID of the Reserve Bank as per the instruction in the survey schedule.

Ans.: An Indian company is said have Pure Technical Collaboration if the company has only foreign technical collaboration and have not received any foreign direct investment.

In case your data does not exist in the CKYC database, you will have to opt for the video KYC method.

Ans: Banks can submit their request for exercising the repayment option till October 28, 2020. On repayment of funds availed under TLTRO/ TLTRO 2.0, the associated securities shall be shifted out of the HTM category. The shifting of the TLTRO/ TLTRO 2.0 investments out of HTM shall be in addition to the shifting of investments permitted at the beginning of the accounting year and subject to adherence to the guidelines contained in the Master Circular – Prudential Norms for Classification, Valuation and Operation of Investment Portfolio by Banks dated July 1, 2015. These investments under TLTRO/ TLTRO 2.0 against which funds are being repaid will not be exempted from reckoning under the large exposure framework (LEF) and computation of adjusted non-food bank credit (ANBC) for the purpose of determining priority sector targets/sub-targets.

Yes, it is possible to have two or more banknotes with the same serial number, but they would either have a different Inset Letter or year of printing or signature of a different Governor of RBI. An Inset Letter is an alphabet printed on the Number Panel of the banknote. There can be notes without any inset letter also.

The regulation on non-deposit accepting NBFCs with asset size of less than ₹ 500 crore would be as under:

(i) They shall not be subjected to any regulation either prudential or conduct of business regulations viz., Fair Practices Code (FPC), KYC, etc., if they have not accessed any public funds and do not have a customer interface.

(ii) Those having customer interface will be subjected only to conduct of business regulations including FPC, KYC etc., if they are not accessing public funds.

(iii) Those accepting public funds will be subjected to limited prudential regulations but not conduct of business regulations if they have no customer interface.

(iv) Where both public funds are accepted and customer interface exist, such companies will be subjected both to limited prudential regulations and conduct of business regulations.

All the Rated Companies have been allowed 3 years’ time to regularise their excess deposits by repayment or otherwise. During this period, while a company can accept fresh deposits and renew such maturing deposits subject to reducing the excess holding of public deposits by one-third at the end of every calendar year beginning December 1998. However in such a case, the company should not exceed the level of public deposits outstanding as at the close of business on January 1, 1998. The unrated and underrated NBFCs are not entitled to accept fresh deposits.

All aspects concerning renewal of overdue deposits may be decided by individual banks subject to their Board laying down a transparent policy in this regard and the customers being notified of the terms and conditions of renewal including interest rate, at the time of acceptance of deposit. The policy should be non-discretionary and non-discriminatory.

Ans: Shares issued by reporting entities to non-resident on non-repatriable basis should not be considered as foreign investment; therefore, entities which have issued the shares to non-resident only on non-repatriable basis, is not required to submit the FLA return.

Yes, apart from ECB raised for refinancing where the proposed ECB amount may not be taken into account to avoid double counting.

Ans: Yes, CICs presently registered with the Bank but fulfilling the criteria for exemption under Notification No 220 dated January 05, 2010 can seek voluntary deregistration. Both audited balance sheet and auditors certificate are required to be submitted for the purpose.

Yes. You can continue to use your FASTag to pay toll upto the available balance. However, no further funding or top ups will be allowed in the FASTags issued by Paytm Payments Bank after March 15, 2024. It is suggested that you procure a new FASTag issued by another bank before March 15, 2024 to avoid any inconvenience

Ans: If the entity’s accounts are not audited before the due date of submission, then they should report in the survey based on unaudited (provisional) account.