Ans.: The Reserve Bank will send emails to all the eligible entities from generic email IDs of the Reserve Bank to notify them about the launch of the FCS survey for the latest reference period. Entities are required to fill in the latest survey schedule attached along with the mail and send to the generic email IDs of the Reserve Bank as per the instruction given in the survey schedule.

Ans: For the purposes of determining whether a company is a CIC, ‘companies in the group’ have been exhaustively defined in para 3 (1) (v) of   of Master Direction DoR(NBFC).PD.003/03.10.119/2016-17 dated August 25, 2016 as “an arrangement involving two or more entities related to each other through any of the following relationships: Subsidiary – parent (defined in terms of AS 21), Joint venture (defined in terms of AS 27), Associate (defined in terms of AS 23), Promoter–promotee [as provided in the SEBI (Acquisition of Shares and Takeover) Regulations, 1997] for listed companies, a related party (defined in terms of AS 18), common brand name, and investment in equity shares of 20 percent and above.” 

Ans: The PIP is conducted by the Reserve Bank half yearly to collect the required details of the reporting entities as on end-March and end-September of a FY. In general, the survey is launched for end-March and end-September position on June 01 and December 01 of that year respectively.

NBFCs are categorized (a) in terms of the type of liabilities into Deposit and Non-Deposit accepting NBFCs; (b) regulatory structure of NBFCs under Scale Based Regulation into NBFC-Base Layer, NBFC-Middle Layer, NBFC-Upper Layer, and NBFC-Top Layer (as detailed in Reserve Bank of India (Non-Banking Financial Companies – Registration, Exemptions and Framework for Scale Based Regulation) Directions, 2025); and (c) by the kind of activity they conduct.

Based on the type of activities they conduct, the different types of NBFCs are as follows:

(i) Investment and Credit Company (ICC): ICC means any company which is a financial institution carrying on as its principal business - asset finance, the providing of finance whether by making loans or advances or otherwise for any activity other than its own and the acquisition of securities; and is not any other category of NBFCs as defined by the Reserve Bank in any of its Directions.

(ii) Housing Finance Company (HFC): HFC shall mean a company that fulfils the following conditions:

1. It is an NBFC whose financial assets, in the business of providing finance for housing, constitute at least 60% of its total assets (netted off by intangible assets). Housing finance for this purpose shall mean providing finance as stated in paragraph 10(8) of the Reserve Bank of India (Housing Finance Companies) Directions, 2025.

2. Out of the total assets (netted off by intangible assets), not less than 50% should be by way of housing finance for individuals as stated at clauses (i) to (v) of Paragraph 10(8) of the aforementioned Directions for HFCs.

(iii) Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC): IFC is a non-banking finance company (a) which deploys at least 75 per cent of its total assets towards infrastructure lending.

(iv) Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF-NBFC): IDF-NBFC means a non-deposit taking NBFC which is permitted to (a) refinance post commencement operations date (COD) infrastructure projects that have completed at least one year of satisfactory commercial operations; and (b) finance toll operate transfer (TOT) projects as the direct lender.

(v) Core Investment Company (CIC): CIC is a NBFC carrying on the business of acquisition of shares and securities which satisfies the following conditions:

1. It holds not less than 90% of its net assets in the form of investment in equity shares, preference shares, debt or loans in group companies;

2. Its investments in the equity shares (including instruments compulsorily convertible into equity shares within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date of issue) in group companies and units of Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) only as sponsor constitutes not less than 60% of its net assets;

3. Provided that the exposure of such CICs towards InvITs shall be limited to their holdings as sponsors and shall not, at any point in time, exceed the minimum holding of units and tenor prescribed in this regard by SEBI (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014, as amended from time to time. It does not trade in its investments in shares, debt or loans in group companies except through block sale for the purpose of dilution or disinvestment;

4. it does not carry on any other financial activity referred to in Section 45I(c) and 45I(f) of the RBI act, 1934 except (i) investment in bank deposits, money market instruments, government securities, bonds or debentures issued by group companies; (ii) granting of loans to group companies; and (iii) issuing of guarantees on behalf of group companies;

5. Its asset size is ₹100 crore or above; and

6. It accepts public funds

(vi) Micro Finance Institution (NBFC-MFI): “NBFC-MFI” means a non-deposit taking NBFC which has a minimum of 75 percent of its total assets deployed towards “microfinance loans” as defined under Reserve Bank of India (Non-Banking Financial Companies – Credit Facilities) Directions, 2025 as under:

1. A microfinance loan is defined as a collateral-free loan given to a household having annual household income up to ₹3,00,000. For this purpose, the household shall mean an individual family unit, i.e., husband, wife and their unmarried children.

2. All collateral-free loans, irrespective of end use and mode of application/ processing/ disbursal (either through physical or digital channels), provided to low-income households, i.e., households having annual income up to ₹3,00,000, shall be considered as microfinance loans.

3. To ensure collateral-free nature of the microfinance loan, the loan shall not be linked with a lien on the deposit account of the borrower.

4. The NBFCs shall have a board-approved policy to provide the flexibility of repayment periodicity on microfinance loans as per borrowers’ requirement.

(vii) Non-Banking Financial Company – Factors (NBFC-Factors): NBFC-Factor is a non-deposit taking NBFC engaged in the principal business of factoring. The financial assets in the factoring business should constitute at least 50 per cent of its total assets and its income derived from factoring business should not be less than 50 per cent of its gross income.

(viii) Mortgage Guarantee Companies (MGC): MGC means a company registered as mortgage guarantee company which primarily transacts the business of providing mortgage guarantee i.e., a guarantee for the repayment of an outstanding housing loan and interest accrued thereon up to the guaranteed amount to a creditor institution, on the occurrence of a trigger event. A mortgage guarantee company shall be deemed to primarily transact the business of providing mortgage guarantee when at least 90 per cent of the business turnover is mortgage guarantee business or at least 90% of the gross income is from mortgage guarantee business.

(ix) Standalone Primary Dealers (SPDs): SPDs are primarily NBFCs which have been granted authorisation to undertake the Primary Dealer activities in Government Securities. SPDs may undertake a set of core and non-core activities which are clearly defined. SPDs support G- Sec market, (both primary and secondary) through various obligations like participating in primary auctions, market making in G- Secs, predominance of investment in G-Secs, achieving minimum secondary market turnover ratio, etc.

(x) Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC): NOFHC means a non-deposit taking NBFC referred to in the Reserve Bank of India (Non-Operative Financial Holding Companies) Directions, 2025 (Updated as on December 05, 2025), issued by the Reserve Bank, which holds the shares of a banking company and the shares of all other financial services companies in its group, whether regulated by the Reserve Bank or by any other financial regulator, to the extent permissible under the applicable regulatory prescriptions.

(xi) NBFC – Account Aggregator (NBFC-AA): NBFC-AA means a non-banking financial company as notified under in sub-clause (iii) of clause (f) of section 45-I of the RBI Act, that undertakes the business of an account aggregator, for a fee or otherwise. The “business of an account aggregator” means the business of providing under a contract, the service of, retrieving or collecting such financial information pertaining to its customer, as may be specified by the Reserve Bank from time to time; and consolidating, organizing and presenting such information to the customer or any other financial information user as may be specified by the Bank; Provided that, the financial information pertaining to the customer shall not be the property of the Account Aggregator, and not be used in any other manner.

(xii) NBFC – Peer to Peer Lending Platform (NBFC-P2P): NBFC-P2P means a non-banking institution which carries on the business of a Peer to Peer Lending Platform i.e., acting as intermediary providing the services of loan facilitation via online medium or otherwise, to the participants of the platform.

Clarification: As per extant guidelines, SMF includes individuals, SHGs, JLGs, Farmers’ Producer Companies (FPC) and Co-operatives of farmers with the accompanying criteria of membership by number and land-holding. Therefore, loans to partnership firms/co-borrowers or any director of a company holding agriculture land upto 2 hectares are not eligible to be classified under the SMF category of PSL.

Clarification: As per extant guidelines, priority sector loans are eligible for classification as loans to minority communities as per the list notified by the GoI from time to time. The same may be read with Master Circular- Credit Facilities to Minority Communities which at para 2.2 states “In the case of a partnership firm, if the majority of the partners belong to one or the other of the specified minority communities, advances granted to such partnership firms may be treated as advances granted to minority communities. Further, if the majority beneficial ownership in a partnership firm belongs to the minority community, then such lending can be classified as advances to the specified communities. A company has a separate legal entity and hence advances granted to it cannot be classified as advances to the specified minority communities”

Clarification: Declaration by the customer in the application form would suffice for classifying credit facilities to Minorities/SCs/STs under Weaker Sections. However, it needs to be ensured that, the loans should first be eligible for classification under priority sector lending as per underlying activity.

Clarification: Banks may rely on a combination of auditors’ certification provided by the originating entity and conduct of sample check by their own staff or by an auditor for the purpose. This may be suitably built into their internal policy.

No. As defined in the circular, technical write-off refers to cases where the NPAs remain outstanding at borrowers’ loan account level, but are derecognised by the lenders only for accounting purposes. Technical write-off is a normal banking practice undertaken by the lenders to cleanse the balance sheets of bad debts which are either considered unrecoverable or whose recovery is likely to consume disproportionate resources of the lenders. However, such technical write-offs do not entail any waiver of claims against the borrower and thus the lenders’ right to recovery is not undermined in any manner. Therefore, the defaulting borrowers are not benefited in any manner and their legal obligation as well as the costs of such defaults for them remain unchanged vis-à-vis the position prior to technical write-offs.

The circular only provides clarity on definition of technical write-off and a broad guidance on the process to be followed by the lenders for technical write-offs, which will ensure consistency in the approach followed by various lenders.

Ans: Yes, entities can fill the FLA return even after due date, after taking approval from RBI. But in that case, penalty clause may be invoked on the entity for late submission.

The RBI Retail Direct Online Portal will facilitate the following:

1. Buying Government securities through primary auctions (non-competitive segment only).

2. Buying and selling Government securities in the secondary market.

3. Buying and selling Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) in the primary and secondary market.

4. Investor services such as account statement, nomination facility, pledge/lien, gift transactions, grievance redressal, and managing profile like contact details etc.

The information about indent and supply of notes and coins or currency/coins in circulation is available on our website www.rbi.org.in, at the following link https://rbi.org.in/web/rbi/publications/reports/annual_report.

Ans.: After sending the duly filled in survey schedule (excel based) to the generic email IDs of the Reserve Bank as per the instruction in the survey schedule, the respondent will receive the system-generated acknowledgement. No separate mail will be sent in this regard. If some error is mentioned in the acknowledgement, then the respondent is required to resubmit the form by rectifying the mentioned error. After corrections, the respondent should receive a successful processing acknowledgement email.

Ans: LLPs and Partnerships are not companies as per Section 3 of Companies Act 2013. Hence, they cannot be included in the definition of Group Company.

Only investments in companies registered under Section 3 of the Companies Act 2013 would be regarded as investments in Group companies for the purpose of calculating 90% investment in Group companies. Moreover, in view of the loose structure and regulatory framework of LLPs/ Partnerships, CICs are prohibited from contributing capital to any partnership firm or to be partners in partnership firms including LLPs

Ans: In general, the due date for participating in PIP for end-March and end-September position is July 07 and December 31 of that year respectively.

The Reserve Bank has been empowered under the RBI Act 1934 to register, determine policy, issue directions, inspect, regulate, supervise and exercise surveillance over NBFCs that fulfil the principal business criteria or 50-50 criteria of principal business. The Reserve Bank can penalize NBFCs for violating the provisions of the RBI Act or the directions or orders issued by the Reserve Bank under RBI Act. The penal action may also include cancellation of the Certificate of Registration issued to the NBFC.

Clarification: The banks are required to submit a request to Financial Inclusion and Development Department, Central Office, RBI at fiddpsd@rbi.org.in to obtain registration for PSLC trading by submitting a) DEA Fund Code b) Customer identification number and c) RBI Current Account number.

The circular is intended to achieve the following objectives:

1. It rationalises the existing regulatory guidance to banks on compromise settlements, consolidating various instructions issued over the years. It also tightens some of the related provisions and ensures greater transparency.

2. By providing a clear regulatory framework, it enables other regulated entities, particularly cooperative banks, to undertake compromise settlements as part of the normal resolution efforts.

3. It provides clarity on definition of technical write-off and provides a broad guidance on the process to be followed by the regulated entities for technical write-offs, which is a normal banking practice.

4. As a disincentive to both the lenders and the borrowers, it introduces the concept of cooling period for normal cases of compromise settlement during which the lender undertaking settlement shall not take any fresh exposure on the borrower entity. In case of borrower accounts classified as wilful defaulter or fraud, the debarment to obtain fresh finance, as explained at (2) above, will apply.

1. Eligible Investors may login to https://rbiretaildirect.org.in and register using the Registration link to begin the account opening process.

2. To open an account, the investor will have to furnish details like full name, PAN, mobile number, e-mail address, residential address, savings bank account number, etc. and specify a login name. Mobile number and email address will be authenticated using OTP and all further customer requests and services will be OTP based.

3. For joint accounts, the PAN, e-mail address and phone number of both holders will be required.

4. Once these details have been provided, you will get a reference number to track your application.

5. You may now initiate your Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

6. In case of joint accounts, the KYC verification will be done for both the holders.

7. It will be mandatory for the investor to fill in the nomination details at the time of opening of the account.

8. The savings bank account of the customer will be linked to their Retail Direct account by crediting a token amount into their bank account and verifying the same.

9. Once the KYC is successful, an RDG account will be opened in the name of the investor(s).

10. Information related to account number, login id & password to access the Online Portal will be made available to the customer on their registered e-mail id.

11. In case of KYC failures, the individual can make new application or resubmit application after making necessary changes.

Ans: Yes, entities can modify the already submitted FLA return after taking the approval from RBI.

The Reserve Bank presently manages the currency operations through its 19 Issue Offices located at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram and a currency chest at its Kochi office. Further, a wide network of currency chests maintained and managed by scheduled banks are part of currency management architecture. The Issue Offices receive fresh banknotes from the currency printing presses which in turn send fresh banknote remittances to the currency chests. Direct remittances of fresh banknotes by the presses to select currency chests also happen.

The Reserve Bank offices located at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi (Mint Linked Offices) receive coins from the mints. These offices then send the coins to the other offices of the Reserve Bank who in turn send the same to Currency Chests and Small Coin Depots. The banknotes and rupee coins are stocked at the currency chests and small coins at the small coin depots. The bank branches receive the banknotes and coins from the Currency Chests and Small Coin Depots for further distribution among the public.

Ans.: In case the account closing is different from end-March, the company cannot report the information as per their account closing period. In such cases, the information should be reported for the reference period only, i.e., previous March and latest March based on company’s internal assessment. Companies can submit provisional figures in FCS survey schedule, if audited data is not available.

Ans: All direct investments in group companies, as appearing in the CICs balance sheet will be taken into account for this purpose. Investments made by subsidiaries in step down subsidiaries or other entities will not be taken into account for computing 90 percent of net assets.