The Reserve Bank of India has issued the Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Cash Reserve Ratio and Statutory Liquidity Ratio) Amendment Directions, 2025 to align the CRR and SLR maintenance framework with recent legislative changes under the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025. A key amendment is the redefinition of “fortnight” from the earlier Saturday–Friday cycle to a fixed bi-monthly period, i.e., the 1st–15th and 16th–end of each month, effective December 15, 2025. Consequently, all CRR and SLR maintenance and reporting requirements in Form A and Form VIII stand revised to follow the amended fortnight structure. Multiple changes across the Directions replace references to “Friday” with “day,” update reporting timelines, remove provisional/final returns, delete paragraph 35, and introduce a single unified Form A return. Banks must now submit fortnightly Form A and monthly Form VIII exclusively through the CIMS portal using digital signatures, with no physical submissions permitted.
The amendments also set out specific transitional arrangements. For the periods December 16–31, 2025 and January 1–15, 2026, CRR/SLR maintenance will be based on NDTL as on November 28, 2025 and December 15, 2025, respectively, before reverting to the standard method from January 16, 2026. A special three-day transition window from December 13–15, 2025 requires banks to maintain CRR and SLR based on NDTL as on November 28, 2025 and ensure minimum CRR of 100% of the requirement. Banks must also submit Form A for December 12, 2025 under the old structure and file Form VIII for December 2025 using both old and new return codes. Conforming changes have been made to Annexes I and II, including revised terminology for reporting days and updated references to State Government Securities.
Link – https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=13224&Mode=0
