The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday issued amendment directions for Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) and Rural Co-operative Banks (RCBs), making procedural and clarificatory changes to the regulatory directions governing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR).
The amendments have come into force with immediate effect and follow recent statutory changes, including the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, the Banking Regulation (Co-operative Societies) Amendment Rules, 2025, and the RBI Scheduled Banks’ (Amendment) Regulations, 2025.
As part of the amendments, the RBI has inserted a reference to “other development financial institutions”, as defined under Section 2(cccii) of the RBI Act, 1934, in the relevant CRR–SLR provisions. Further, institutional references in reporting formats have been updated to explicitly include the National Housing Bank (NHB), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), replacing certain earlier references such as the Industrial Development Bank of India.
The central bank has also introduced a new reporting item titled “Amount deposited with the Reserve Bank, under Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) Scheme” in the prescribed CRR and SLR reporting formats, thereby incorporating SDF balances into regulatory returns applicable to co-operative banks.
In addition, the amendment directions carry out technical and drafting changes across annexures and forms, including clearer references to IDBI Bank Limited, deletion of outdated expressions, and insertion of standard language stating that applicable CRR and SLR percentages shall be “as notified by the Reserve Bank”, ensuring uniform interpretation.
Importantly, the amendments do not result in any change in the prevailing CRR or SLR rates for either urban or rural co-operative banks. The changes are procedural, clarificatory, and alignment-oriented, and do not impose any additional reserve requirements.
The amendment directions issued for UCBs and RCBs are identical in substance, differing only in their respective titles, and are intended to bring greater clarity, consistency, and alignment with the current legal and regulatory framework.
