Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra today announced measures to provide protection and compensation for customers against digital frauds. Addressing the media after the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on 6 February, Malhotra said that customers could get up to ₹25,000 compensation for losses in small-value digital frauds.
In his statement, he said the RBI would formulate “additional measures” with aim to enhance customer protection and credit flow, advance financial inclusion, strengthen urban cooperative banks (UCBs), promote ease of doing business for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and deepen financial markets.
Strengthening UCBs: Four measures announced
Of these new measures, Malhotra said the first two pertain to raising the financial limits on unsecured loans and loans to nominal members by UCBs. “We also propose to remove the tenor and moratorium related requirements on housing loans given by Tier III and Tier IV UCBs,” he added.
Further, to strengthen the managerial and technical capacity of the UCBs, “we shall launch Mission-SAKSHAM (Sahakari Bank Kshamta Nirman). The mission intends to train over 1.4 lakh participants from UCBs”, he said.
Promoting Ease of doing business for NBFCs
Malhotra announced that NBFCs having no public funds and customer interface, with asset size not exceeding ₹1000 crore, are proposed to be exempted from the requirement of registration.
“Moreover, it is proposed to dispense with the requirement for certain NBFCs to obtain prior approval to open more than 1000 branches,” he added.
Deepening financial markets
On the financial markets, the RBI Governor noted that the central bank had earlier issued revised draft regulations for ECBs (External Commercial Borrowings). “They have been finalized and shall be notified shortly,” he stated.
“We also propose to remove the limit of ₹ 2.5 lakh crore for investments under the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR). Investment through the VRR in each category of securities will be subject to the investment ceiling for the respective category under the General Route,” he added.
Malhotra added that following Budget 2026, RBI also proposes regulatory framework for derivatives on corporate bond indices and total return swaps on corporate bonds; and draft revised guidelines for Authorised Dealer banks and stand-alone primary dealers (SPDs), allowing them more flexibility in undertaking foreign exchange transactions.
