RBI Issues Consolidated Master Directions After Reorganising Over 9,000 Circulars

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published a consolidated set of Master Directions after consolidating more than 9,000 regulatory circulars and guidelines issued over the years. The instructions were earlier spread across multiple documents issued under different laws and for different types of regulated entities. As new rules were added, earlier instructions remained in place, which resulted in a large volume of regulatory material accumulating over time.

RBI has stated that the consolidation was taken to organise all existing instructions administered by its Department of Regulation. Many instructions had been issued due to expansion in regulated activities, changes in supervisory responsibilities, and growth in the financial system. The consolidation review covered circulars, guidelines, notifications, and other regulatory documents issued by the department.

Restructuring Exercise

The restructuring exercise involved consolidation of instructions concerning all 11 categories of regulated entities, namely commercial banks, small finance banks (SFBs), payments banks, local area banks, regional rural banks (RRBs), urban cooperative banks, rural cooperative banks, all India financial institutions, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), asset reconstruction companies, and credit information companies.

Previous instructions issued by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to some co-operative banks were also incorporated after consultation. About 3,500 individual directions, circulars and guidelines issued by NABARD were consolidated into 238 draft Master Directions. These drafts were put in the public domain for comments on October 10, 2025. Over 770 comments were submitted by stakeholders. 

According to RBI, suggestions regarding the completeness and accuracy of the drafts were considered and adopted where appropriate. Elsewhere, suggestions regarding changes in regulations were not included because the review was limited to consolidation.

Final Set Of Documents Issued

After considering the comments, RBI finally issued 244 Master Directions containing all current instructions of the Department of Regulation. These have been arranged function-wise and by category of regulated entity. Thus, they constitute the central repository of regulations currently in force under the department.

The release also includes seven new Master Directions covering digital banking channel authorisation for seven types of regulated entities.

The list of 9,445 circulars, which are being withdrawn or repealed, has also been issued along with the Master Directions. The full list of withdrawn circulars and the list of standalone notifications, which remain in force, can be accessed from the RBI’s website.

Access and Structure of the New Directions

The new Master Directions have been published under the notifications section on the RBI website. Each direction deals with a separate regulatory area for a specific category of financial institutions. RBI said that these directions collate all instructions on an as-is basis without changing the existing regulatory requirements. The documents are now the single source for all instructions issued by the Department of Regulation.

The circulars that have been withdrawn have been placed separately under the circulars withdrawn section to provide greater transparency on which of the older instructions are no longer in force.

Outcome of the Consolidation

The consolidation offers a structured set of documents containing regulatory instructions that the Department of Regulation currently administers. Regulated entities can now refer to a unified set of Master Directions and not circulars issued over several years. Incidentally, the consolidation also identifies circulars which no longer constitute operational instructions and officially withdraws them. 

The reorganisation completes a multi-stage process that started with the review of existing instructions, followed by consultation with the public, and ended with the issuance of consolidated directions along with the list of repealed circulars.