Ans.  A contravener may submit a compounding application form, physically or through PRAVAAH Portal of the Reserve Bank along with the documents/formats provided as Annexure I, Annexure II and Annexure III of the Directions – Compounding of contraventions under FEMA, 1999.

There have been complaints that life certificates submitted over the counter of pension paying branches are misplaced causing delay in payment of monthly pensions. In order to alleviate the hardships faced by pensioners, agency banks were instructed to mandatorily issue duly signed acknowledgements. They were also requested to consider entering the receipt of life certificates in their CBS and issue a system generated acknowledgement which would serve the twin purpose of acknowledgement as well as real time updation of records. Banks may provide digital acknowledgements in respect of digital life certificates submitted by the pensioners.

Reserve Bank of India has deregulated interest rates on advances including education loans sanctioned by Scheduled Commercial Banks. The interest rates are determined by banks with the approval of their respective Board of Directors, subject to regulatory guidelines on interest rate on advances contained in RBI’s Master Direction- Reserve Bank of India (Interest Rate on Advances) Directions, 2016 as updated from time to time.

Ans. No, if an existing KYC compliant customer of an RE desires to open another account or avail any other product/ service from the same RE, he is not required to submit any KYC document unless there is a change in the information with respect to his identity and/ or address.

Ans: Yes, REs have to mandatorily offer fixed interest rate product in all equated installment based personal loan categories. As stated in paragraph 2 (ii) of the circular, REs shall provide the option to the borrowers to switch over to a fixed rate as per their Board approved policy at the time of reset of interest rates.

Ans: e₹ wallets are safe and secure. There is a robust cyber-security framework to ensure that e₹ is kept secure in the user’s wallet. The e₹ stored in the e₹ wallet is safe even if the mobile device on which the e₹ wallet is installed is lost. The e₹ wallet can be recovered using the same phone number / SIM on a new mobile device.

Default in repayment by the borrower is also a type of non-compliance of material terms and conditions of loan repayment contract by the borrower and penalty, if charged, for such default may only be levied in the form of penal charges and not penal interest. Such penal charges shall be reasonable and levied by the lenders only on the amount under default in a non-discriminatory manner as per their Board approved policy. Further, it must be ensured that there is no capitalization of the penal charges i.e., no further interest computed on such charges.

Ans. No. As the money belongs to the minor child and not the bank’s staff, additional interest cannot be paid, in terms of paragraph 9.1.6 of these Directions.

An RBI Ombudsman is a senior official of RBI appointed by RBI to redress the complaints from customers of the REs against “deficiency in service”, as defined under Clause 3(1)(g) of the RB-IOS, 2021. “Deficiency in service” means a shortcoming or an inadequacy in any financial service or such other services related thereto, which the RE is required to provide statutorily or otherwise, which may or may not result in financial loss or damage to the customer.

Ans.:  Once the survey is launched, MF companies will receive an email from RBI along with the soft copy of the survey schedule (Schedule-4) in excel format as attachment. The company should use this survey schedule to fill in the details. The filled-in survey schedule (Schedule-4) in excel format (.xls format) should be sent by email to mf@rbi.org.in. No other attachments should be forwarded along with the MF survey schedule.

Ans.: The reference period of an ITES survey round is the immediately preceding financial year (April-March)

Ans: In cases where withdrawal of FMR / removal of name(s) of perpetrator(s) is necessitated due to Court directions, REs may arrange to withdraw FMR / remove name(s) of perpetrator(s) immediately. Such cases shall subsequently be placed before the official in the rank of WTD for information.

Ans. The rationale to allow non-bank entities to set up WLAs has been to increase the geographical spread of ATMs for increased / enhanced customer service, especially in semi-urban / rural areas.

Answer: The term correspondent banking relationship acts as an intermediary or agent, facilitating wire transfers, conducting business transactions, accepting deposits and gathering documents on behalf of another bank. Correspondent banks are most likely to be used by domestic banks to service transactions that either originate or are completed in foreign countries. Domestic banks also use correspondent banks to gain access to foreign financial markets and to serve international clients without having to open branches abroad.

Priority sector lending include only those sectors as part of the priority sector, that impact large sections of the population, the weaker sections and the sectors which are employment-intensive such as agriculture, and Micro and Small enterprises. Detailed guidelines on Priority sector lending are available in our Master Directions - Reserve Bank of India (Priority Sector Lending – Targets and Classification) Directions, 2025 dated March 24, 2025 and updated from time to time.

Response: An eligible depositor can open a Gold Deposit Account with any of the designated banks after meeting the KYC norms. Generally, deposits under the scheme shall be made at the CPTC/GMS Mobilisation, Collection & Testing Agent (GMCTA) which would then test the purity of the customers’ gold in their presence and issue deposit receipts of the standard gold of 995 fineness to the depositor and also inform the customers’ respective bank about acceptance of deposit. The designated bank will credit Short-Term Bank Deposit (STBD) account of the customer, as is applicable, either on the same day of receipt of deposit receipt by the depositor or within 30 days of deposit of gold at CPTC/GMCTA (regardless of whether the depositor submits the receipt or not), whichever is earlier.

Thereafter, the interest on deposits will start accruing from date of conversion of gold deposited into tradable gold bars or 30 days after receipt of gold at the CPTC/GMCTA, whichever is earlier.

Answer: Opening of accounts by individuals/ entities of Pakistan nationality/ ownership and entities of Bangladesh ownership requires prior approval of the Reserve Bank.

However, individuals of Bangladesh nationality can open an NRO account subject to the individual(s) holding a valid visa and valid residential permit issued by Foreigner Registration Office (FRO)/ Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) concerned.

Further, citizens of Bangladesh/Pakistan belonging to minority communities in those countries, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians residing in India and who have been granted Long Term Visa (LTV) or whose application for LTV is under consideration, are permitted to open only one NRO account with an AD bank in India subject to the conditions mentioned in Notification No. FEMA 5(R)/2016-RB dated April 01, 2016, as updated from time to time. The opening of such NRO accounts will be subject to reporting of the details of the accounts opened by the concerned Authorised bank, to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on a quarterly basis as instructed vide AP (DIR Series) Circular No. 28 dated March 28, 2019.

Ans. The monies so collected by the PPI issuers are to be used to make payments to merchants who are part of the acceptance arrangement and for facilitating funds transfer / remittance services on behalf of the PPI holders.

Yes. One can have Term/Fixed Deposit, Recurring Deposit etc., accounts in the bank where one holds 'Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account'.

All loans meeting the eligibility criteria, unless covered by the specific exclusions listed in Paragraph 2 of the Annex to the Resolution Framework subject to the clarification at Sl. No. 2 above fall within the scope of resolution under the framework. These loans, if not falling under any of the categories mentioned in Paragraph 2 of the Annex to the Resolution Framework, is eligible for resolution under Part A of the Annex if they fall within the purview of “personal loans” as defined in the Circular DBR.No.BP.BC.99/08.13.100/2017-18 dated January 4, 2018 on “XBRL Returns – Harmonization of Banking Statistics”, even if they are not explicitly classified as so in any regulatory / supervisory reporting, or under Part B of the Annex otherwise.