With eye on easing compliance burden: RBI consolidates regulatory norms

In a major regulatory overhaul, the RBI on Friday issued 244 master directions by consolidating more than 9,400 existing circulars or guidelines.

In October, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had said it undertook an exercise to consolidate the instructions issued by its Department of Regulation into a set of Master Directions on an ‘as is’ basis. Under this, nearly 3,809 directions, circulars, and guidelines, were consolidated into 238 master directions, across 11 types of regulated entities (REs), the RBI said. Close to 5,673 directions or circulars were identified as obsolete and have been repealed, the RBI said.

The 11 types of regulated entities include commercial banks, small finance banks, payments banks; regional rural banks; rural co-operative banks, All India Financial Institutions and non-banking financial companies.