No. Model Education Loan Scheme, 2021 is currently applicable to Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) only. The list of SCBs is available here.

Answer: The settlement through Indian Rupees (INR) is an additional arrangement to the existing system that uses freely convertible currencies and will work as a complimentary system. This will reduce dependence on hard (freely convertible) currency.

Ans: Debit cards are issued by banks and are linked to a bank account. Credit cards are issued by scheduled commercial banks (excluding Payments banks), Regional Rural Banks (in collaboration with other banks), and Urban Cooperative Banks, Non-Bank Financial Companies (subject to approval from RBI). Prepaid cards are issued by eligible banks and authorised non-banks.

Ans: Para 1 of the Annex I to the Circular dated September 02, 2022 specifies that these Guidelines are applicable to ‘Digital Lending’. Hence, only if a lending transaction qualifies under the definition of ‘Digital Lending’, will the service provider facilitating such lending be designated as LSP.

Ans: The provisions of Clause 34, that require the transfer to be only on cash basis at the time of transfer of loans, shall be without derogation of the provisions of clause 15, which pertains to retained economic interest. However, it is reiterated that any retention of economic interest under clause 15 by the transferor must not result in credit enhancement.

Ans: IIBs are government securities and as such should be classified accordingly as indicated in para 2 (i) of Master circular on investments:

Classification

i) The entire investment portfolio of the banks (including SLR securities and non-SLR securities) should be classified under three categories

viz. 'Held to Maturity',

'Available for Sale' and 'Held for Trading'

* However, in the balance sheet, the investments will continue to be disclosed as per the existing six classifications:

viz. a) Government securities,

b) Other approved securities,

c) Shares,

d) Debentures & Bonds,

e) Subsidiaries / joint ventures and

f) Others (CP, Mutual Fund Units, etc.).

Ans. Following links can be perused for understanding RTGS and NEFT systems: -

RTGS System Regulations

NEFT Procedural Guidelines

FAQs on RTGS

FAQs on NEFT

Master Guidelines on Access Criteria for Payment Systems

Ans. Any person who contravenes any provision of the FEMA, 1999 [except section 3(a)] or contravenes any rule, regulation, notification, direction or order issued in exercise of the powers under this Act or contravenes any condition subject to which an authorization is issued by the Reserve Bank, can apply for compounding to the Reserve Bank. Applications seeking compounding of contraventions under section 3(a) of FEMA, 1999 may be submitted to the Directorate of Enforcement (DOE).

Ans. Yes, KYC is mandatorily required to be carried out:

1. at the time of commencement of an account-based relationship, i.e., opening any type of account with the RE; or
2. when a walk-in-customer carries out occasional transaction of an amount equal to or exceeding ₹50,000 (whether conducted as a single transaction or several transactions that appear to be connected); or
3. when a walk-in-customer carries out any international money transfer operations; or
4. when the RE has a doubt about the authenticity or adequacy of the customer identification data it has obtained; or
5. when the RE sells its own products or third party products as an agent; payment of dues of credit cards/ sale and reloading of prepaid/ travel cards and any other product for more than ₹50,000.

Ans: e₹ can be held and transacted through e₹ wallets offered by banks and non-banks for person-to-person payments or person-to-merchant transactions. One can start using the e₹ wallet by downloading the e₹ app from the Play Store or the App Store and by following the App instructions. Detailed instructions on using the e₹ wallet can be checked with the banks and non-banks providing the wallet. Payments to merchants can be made by scanning either the CBDC QR code or the UPI QR code available at the respective merchant location.

The instructions as contained in the circular are not applicable to products covered under the RBI Master Direction - External Commercial Borrowings, Trade Credits and Structured Obligations dated March 26, 2019 (as amended from time to time) and the banks may be guided by the relevant instructions contained in the aforesaid Master Direction.

Ans: Communications to borrowers envisaged in the circular are:

(a) At the time of sanction:

1. Annualised rate of interest/ Annual Percentage Rate (APR), as applicable, shall be disclosed in the Key Fact Statement (KFS) and the loan agreement.

2. The possible impact of change in benchmark interest rate on the loan.

(b) During the tenure of the loan:

1. Subsequently, any increase in the EMI/tenor on account of the external benchmark rate shall be communicated; and

2. Quarterly statements shall be provided disclosing at the minimum, the principal and interest recovered till date, EMI amount, number of EMIs left and annualized rate of interest for the tenor of the loan.

Ans. In terms of paragraph 4.22 of Master Direction - Reserve Bank of India (Interest Rate on Deposits) Directions, 2025, reinvestment deposits are those deposits where interest (as and when due) is reinvested at the same contracted rate till maturity which is withdrawable with the principal amount on maturity date.

Ans.: Annual.

Ans: Paragraph 5.1 of the Master Directions requires Regulated Entities (REs) to immediately report incidents of fraud to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), subject to applicable laws. Under Section 33 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), a person is not mandatorily required to report to LEAs information on commission of all offences, but only on those offences which are listed in that Section. REs are, however, advised to mandatorily report incidents of fraud involving an amount of ₹1 lakh or more to LEAs.

Ans. ATMs set up, owned and operated by non-banks are called WLAs. Non-bank ATM operators are authorised under the Payment & Settlement Systems Act, 2007 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The list of authorised WLA Operators is available on the RBI website at the link https://rbi.org.in/web/rbi/payment-and-settlements/other-links/information-useful-to-banks-fis/payment-system-operators

Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India has launched the Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) to facilitate formalisation of Informal Micro Enterprises (IMEs) through online generation of Udyam Assist Certificate. Ministry of MSME has defined IMEs as those enterprises, which on the basis of their turnover, are exempted from filing returns under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

The UAP is managed by SIDBI wherein registration of enterprises on the platform is done with the assistance of Designated Agencies which are RBI regulated entities (including scheduled commercial banks, non-banking financial companies, etc.). The certificate issued on UAP to IMEs is treated at par with URC for the purpose of availing PSL benefits. IMEs with an Udyam Assist Certificate are treated as micro enterprises for the purpose of PSL classification. (Refer Master Direction FIDD.MSME & NFS.12/06.02.31/2017-18 dated July 24, 2017 and circular  FIDD.MSME & NFS.BC.No.09/06.02.31/2023-24 dated May 09, 2023)

Response: Resident Indians [Individuals, HUFs, Proprietorship & Partnership firms, Trusts including Mutual Funds/Exchange Traded Funds registered under SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations, Companies, charitable institutions, Central Government, State Government or any other entity owned by Central Government or State Government].

Ans. RTGS offers many advantages for funds transfer:

• It is a safe and secure system for funds transfer.

• RTGS transactions / transfers have no amount cap set by RBI.

• The system is available on all days on 24x7x365 basis. There is real time transfer of funds to the beneficiary account.

• The remitter need not use a physical cheque or a demand draft.

• The beneficiary need not visit a bank branch for depositing the paper instruments.

• The beneficiary need not be apprehensive about loss / theft of physical instruments or the likelihood of fraudulent encashment thereof.

• Remitter can initiate the remittances from his / her home / place of work using internet banking, if his / her bank offers such service.

• The transaction charges have been capped by RBI.

• The transaction has legal backing.

A link to ATS has been provided in the RBI website http://www.rbi.org.in.

Ans : IDF-MFs can be sponsored by banks and NBFCs. Only banks and Infrastructure Finance companies can sponsor IDF-NBFCs.

Local cheque collection charges are decided by the concerned bank from time to time and communicated to customer through their CCP as part of the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers.

Banks cannot charge more than the following for outstation cheques:

Up to and including Rs.5,000 – Rs.25 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.5,000 and up to and including Rs.10,000 – not exceeding Rs.50 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.10,000 and up to and including Rs.1,00,000 – not exceeding Rs.100 per instrument + service tax; Above Rs.1,00,000 – left to the banks to decide. No additional charges such as courier charges, out of pocket expenses, etc., should be levied.

It may be noted, no outstation cheque collection charges to be levied if the collecting bank and the paying bank are located within the jurisdiction of the same CTS grid even though they are located in different cities.

• Yes, capital protection will be provided by paying higher of the adjusted principal and face value (FV) at redemption.

• If adjusted principal goes below FV due to deflation, the FV would be paid at redemption and thus, capital will get protected.

Ans. Travellers going to all countries other than (a) and (b) below are allowed to purchase foreign currency notes / coins only up to USD 3000 per visit. Balance amount can be carried in the form of store value cards, travellers cheque or banker’s draft. Exceptions to this are (a) travellers proceeding to Iraq and Libya who can draw foreign exchange in the form of foreign currency notes and coins not exceeding USD 5000 or its equivalent per visit; (b) travellers proceeding to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russian Federation and other Republics of Commonwealth of Independent States who can draw entire foreign exchange (up-to USD 250,000) in the form of foreign currency notes or coins.

For travellers proceeding for Haj/ Umrah pilgrimage, full amount of entitlement (USD 250,000) in cash or up to the cash limit as specified by the Haj Committee of India, may be released by the ADs and FFMCs.

Ans. Resident as defined in Sec 2(v) ² of FEMA, 1999. Further, the onus is on the individual to prove his/ her residential status, if questioned by any authority.

Only CTS-2010 standards compliant instruments can be presented for clearing through CTS.

CTS-2010 standards contain certain benchmarks towards achieving standardization of cheques issued by banks across the country. These include provision of mandatory minimum-security features on cheque forms like quality of paper, watermark, bank’s logo in invisible ink, void pantograph, etc., and standardisation of field placements on cheques. The minimum-security features and standardisation help presenting banks while scrutinising / recognising cheques of drawee banks in an image-based processing scenario.

Ans : Based on the geographical location of branches covered, there are three broad categories of ECS Schemes – Local ECS, Regional ECS and National ECS.These schemes are either operated by RBI or by the designated commercial banks. NACH is also one of the form of ECS system operated by NPCI and further details about NACH is available at NPCI web site under the link http://www.npci.org.in/clearing_faq.aspx.

Local ECS – this is operating at 81 centres / locations across the country. At each of these ECS centres, the branch coverage is restricted to the geographical coverage of the clearing house, generally covering one city and/or satellite towns and suburbs adjoining the city.

Regional ECS – this is operating at 9 centres / locations at various parts of the country. RECS facilitates the coverage all core-banking-enabled branches in a State or group of States and can be used by institutions desirous of reaching beneficiaries within the State / group of States. The system takes advantage of the core banking system in banks. Accordingly, even though the inter-bank settlement takes place centrally at one location in the State, the actual customers under the Scheme may have their accounts at various bank branches across the length and breadth of the State / group of States.

National ECS – this is the centralized version of ECS Credit which was launched in October 2008. The Scheme is operated at Mumbai and facilitates the coverage of all core-banking enabled branches located anywhere in the country. This system too takes advantage of the core banking system in banks. Accordingly, even though the inter-bank settlement takes place centrally at one location at Mumbai, the actual customers under the Scheme may have their accounts at various bank branches across the length and breadth of the country. Banks are free to add any of their core-banking-enabled branches in NECS irrespective of their location. Details of NECS Scheme are available on the website of Reserve Bank of India at http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts//en/web/rbi/-/national-electronic-clearing-service-procedural-guidelines-2345

The list of centres where the ECS facility is available has been placed on the website of Reserve Bank of India at http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/ECSUserView.aspx?Id=26. Similarly, the centre-wise list of bank branches participating at each location is available on the website of Reserve Bank of India at http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/ECSUserView.aspx?Id=27

Response

No. An individual is eligible to have only one 'Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account' in one bank.

Ans. Only applicants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Hong, Kong, Macau and Pakistan shall have to register with the State Police authorities. Copy of approval letter for persons from these countries shall be marked by the AD Category I bank to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Internal Security Division – I, Government of India, New Delhi for necessary action and record. All other countries are exempted from registering with the State Police authorities.

Yes. There are various ways of collecting (realising) USD denominated cheques. The collection process followed by banks (presenting banks) varies depending on the institutional arrangements put in place by them. There are basically three types of arrangements adopted by banks–

i. Cash Letter Arrangement (CLA): Cheques are sent by the presenting banks in India to their correspondent banks (CBs) in USA for domestic clearing. Funds are collected (realised) by the CBs and credited to the account of the presenting bank maintained in US. Such accounts are known as NOSTRO accounts. For cheques sent under CLA the CB gives provisional credit to the bank on a pre-determined date (which varies from 7 to 9 days after tendering of cheque to the CB). However, the provisional credit will be subjected to a cooling period. After the cooling period, the customer’s account with the presenting bank in India is credited. In case of secured collection facility, the CB provides a guaranteed credit but at an additional cost.

(Cooling period is the time up to which banks wait after receiving provisional credit for the amount of cheque in their Nostro account for possible return of the cheque under provisions of the laws of USA by the drawee bank, before giving credit to the customers. More details are available under Question 9.)

(Secured Collection is a facility extended by the CBs. Under this facility, the CBs provide guaranteed final credit without recourse within a confirmed time period unlike normal collection service. Hence the collection time period is better under this facility. CBs offering this facility normally fix a cap for the amount of individual cheques collected under the arrangement. The CBs absorb any subsequent recall of payment by the drawee bank as per US laws. The bank offering such service charge an additional amount for giving credit without recourse.)

ii. Direct Collection Arrangement (DCA) : Cheques are sent by the banks in India directly to the drawee banks in USA for collection. Usually collection services ensure receipts of clear funds i.e., risk of return is almost eliminated. Therefore, high value cheques are generally sent under collection though the time taken may be more.

iii. Final Credit Services (FCS) : These services are offered by some CBs. The CB offering the service guarantees confirmed credit against the instrument. Under this arrangement banks receive final credit in their Nostro accounts without any recourse. This service normally does not have any cooling period as the cooling period is factored by the CBs before releasing the clear funds.

iv. Check-21 Facility : The System has been facilitated under Check-21 Legislation. It works more or less like CTS. When using check 21 facility, dealings are cleared utilizing the exchange of check images from bank to bank. It saves time in transit.

Ans: Leverage ratio refers to outside liabilities on the balance sheet of an NBFC-P2P Platform that it can raise divided by its owned funds. Customers’ funds lent/borrowed by using the platform is not reckoned as outside liability of the platform.

On February 27, 2017 Government of India notified the Specified Banknotes (Cessation of liabilities) Act 2017. The Act repealed the Specified Banknotes (Cessation of liabilities) Ordinance 2016 providing for cessation of liabilities for the Specified Banknotes (SBNs) and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto, with effect from December 31, 2016. The SBNs cease to be the liabilities of the Reserve Bank under Section 34 of the RBI Act and cease to have the guarantee of the Central Government.

A grace period has been provided during which the Specified Bank Notes can be deposited at five RBI Offices (Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Nagpur by Indian citizens who make a declaration that they were outside India between November 9 and December 30, 2016, subject to conditions or any class of persons for reasons that may be specified by notification by the Central Government. The Reserve Bank, if satisfied after making the necessary verifications, that the reasons for failure to deposit the notes till December 30, 2016 are genuine, will credit the value of notes in the KYC (Know Your Customer) compliant bank account of the tenderer.

The grace period for resident Indians expired on March 31, 2017. For non- resident Indians (Indian passport holders), the grace period is till June 30, 2017.

For details on the exchange counter timings at the five aforesaid Regional Offices of RBI, please click here.

Any person aggrieved by the refusal of the Reserve Bank to credit the value of notes as mentioned above may make a representation to the Central Board of the Reserve Bank within 14 days of the communication of such refusal to him/her.

In terms of Section 6 of the Act, whoever knowingly or wilfully makes any false declaration shall be punishable with a fine which may extend to 50,000 INR or five times the amount of the face value of the SBNs tendered whichever is higher.

In terms of Section 5 of the Act, with effect from December 31, 2016 no person shall knowingly or voluntarily hold, transfer or receive any specified banknotes. After the expiry of grace period, holding of not more than 10 notes in total, irrespective of denomination or not more than 25 notes for the purpose of study/ research/ numismatics is permitted. Also, nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the holding of specified banknotes by any person on the direction of a court in relation to any case pending in the court. For deposit of confiscated SBNs, GoI has notified Specified Ban Notes (Deposit of Confiscated Notes) Rules 2017 on May 12, 2017.

In terms of Section 7, contravention of Section 5 shall be punishable with fine which may extend upto 10,000 INR or five times the face value of the SBNs involved in the contravention, whichever is higher.

In case the contravention/default in terms of Sections 6 and 7 is by a company, every person who was in charge of and responsible to the company at the time of contravention/ default shall deemed to be guilty and will be liable to be proceeded against and punished. If the offence is proved to be attributable to the conduct by any director/manager/secretary/officer/employee of the company, such person shall also be deemed to be guilty of the offence and will be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

• There will be two parts in the interest rate. One, fixed rate of 1.5% per annum and second, inflation rate.

• For example, if inflation rate during the six months is 5%, then interest rate for this six months would be 5.75% (i.e. fixed rate -0.75% and inflation rate -5%).

Ans. All collateral-free loans to individual/s belonging to low-income households, i.e., households having annual income up to ₹3,00,000 are treated as microfinance loans.

Ans. The detailed procedural instructions issued by RBI are contained in the A.P.(DIR Series) Circular No. 22 dated March 17, 2020 and in Master Direction No.16/2015-16 dated January 1, 2016 on Export of Goods and Services, as amended from time to time.

Ans. Only MSMEs can participate as sellers in TReDS.

Ans. Charges, if any, levied on cash withdrawals shall not exceed 1% of the transaction amount.

The requirement of ICA in respect of the entity to which lending institutions have exposure is a basic feature of Prudential Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets dated June 7, 2019, and consequently that of the Resolution Framework. There is sufficient flexibility to the lending institutions to formulate ICAs in respect of a legal entity to which they have exposure that address the specific requirements of each borrowers on a case to case basis, including designing different resolution approaches for different projects under the same borrower within an ICA. Similarly, apart from the escrow account required to be set up at the legal entity level as required by the Resolution Framework, there is no prohibition in setting up additional separate escrow accounts at each project level, if the lenders desire so. Only in respect of borrowers belonging to real estate sector, and have both residential and commercial real estate business, the prescribed thresholds for the financial parameters may be applied at the project level.

Response: Customer-initiated process indicating intent to use a credit card such as PIN generation, modification of transaction control, Interactive Voice Response, recorded call to the customer care centre and SMS may be considered as activation. However, if the card is not activated by the cardholder for more than 30 days from the date of issuance, card-issuers shall seek One Time Password (OTP) based consent in line with para 6(a)(vi) of the MD.

ANS: The banks are required to transfer the credit balance in the accounts referred in Q No 2 above, to the DEA Fund on the last working day of the month subsequent to the month of completing 10 years of its continuous inoperative or unclaimed status.
For example, the deposits becoming due to be transferred to DEA Fund (i.e., unclaimed for 10 years), in the month of April shall be transferred to the DEA Fund on the last working day in the month of May.

ANS: All unclaimed deposits/accounts that are part of Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund of RBI can be searched in UDGAM portal. [Please refer to FAQs on DEA Fund scheme, 2014].

Ans: The SARFAESI Act, 2002 does not classify possession as symbolic or physical, and these are conventions that have evolved. Accordingly, the REs shall display information on secured assets possessed under Section 13 (4) of the SARFAESI Act, 2002. This includes the display of both symbolically and physically possessed assets on the website of REs.

Ans.:MF companies in India are required to participate in this survey.

Banks in India presently enabled for sending remittances through the UPI-PayNow linkage are:

• ICICI Bank

• Indian Bank

• Indian Overseas Bank

• State Bank of India

Ans: No. DLG amount once invoked by the RE cannot be reinstated, including through loan recovery. Please also refer to our answer to Q.1. Kindly see illustrations at the end.

Ans. Any debit from or credit to a non-resident’s account in India as a result of a transaction with a resident will attract the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and hence, the provisions contained in the circular shall apply.

1. The liquid instruments are Level 1 High Quality Liquid Assets as per the extant guidelines.

2. The REs can temporarily park proceeds of green deposits, pending allocation towards green activities/ projects, in liquid instruments with maximum maturity upto one year (This will have to be specified under the Financing Framework).

3. The framework does not envisage any penalty for non-allocation of proceeds towards green activities/ projects; however, it shall be subject to supervisory review.

Ans: The debit cards can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM, purchase of goods and services at points of sale (PoS) terminals or e-commerce (online purchase). They can be used domestically, or internationally.

Answer: Permitted forex transactions executed electronically should be undertaken only on electronic trading platforms (ETPs) authorised for the purpose by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or on recognized stock exchanges (National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE), BSE Ltd. (BSE) and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (MSE)) as per the terms and conditions specified by RBI from time to time. The list of authorised ETPs is available here. As per FEMA, resident persons are not permitted to undertake forex transactions on unauthorised ETPs.

Resident persons undertaking forex transactions on unauthorised ETPs shall render themselves liable for penal action under FEMA.

RBI issued circular RPCD.SME&NFS.BC.No.69/06.12.05/2009-10 dated April 12, 2010, on Collateral Free Loans - Educational Loan Scheme, making it mandatory that banks must not obtain collateral security in the case of education loans upto ₹4 lakh.

Before appointment of an audit firm as SCA/SA of the RBI Regulated Entity, there should be a time gap of minimum one year between this appointment and completion of the assignment of any non-audit works given to the same audit firm in that RBI Regulated Entity or completion of any audit/non-audit works in other RBI Regulated Entities in the Group. This stipulation shall be applicable prospectively, i.e. from FY 2022-23. Therefore, if an audit firm is involved in some non-audit work with the Entity and/or any audit/non-audit work in other RBI Regulated Entities in the Group and completes or relinquishes the said assignment prior to the date of appointment as SCA/SA of the Entity for FY 2021-22, the said audit firm would be eligible for appointment as SCA/SA of the Entity for FY 2021-22.

It is reiterated that the time gap between any non-audit works by the SCAs/SAs for the Entities or any audit/non-audit works for its Group Entities should be at least one year after completion of the audit assignment as SCA/SA.

Ans: 50%