The Reserve Bank of India has issued the Reserve Bank of India (Payments Banks – Cash Reserve Ratio and Statutory Liquidity Ratio) Amendment Directions, 2025 to bring the CRR and SLR framework in line with the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025. A key revision is the new definition of “fortnight,” now fixed as the 1st–15th and 16th–end of every month, effective December 15, 2025. Accordingly, all CRR/SLR maintenance requirements and reporting formats in Form A and Form VIII have been updated. References to “Friday” across various provisions have been replaced with “day,” provisional and final returns have been discontinued, paragraph 33 deleted, and a single Form A return structure has been introduced. Payments Banks must now submit fortnightly Form A and monthly Form VIII only through the CIMS portal using dual digital signatures, with no physical submissions permitted.
Transitional provisions require CRR/SLR maintenance for December 16–31, 2025 and January 1–15, 2026 based on NDTL as on November 28 and December 15, 2025, respectively, before reverting to the standard methodology from January 16, 2026. A three-day transition period from December 13–15, 2025 mandates CRR/SLR maintenance based on NDTL of November 28, 2025 and a minimum CRR of 100% of the requirement. Payments Banks must also file Form A for December 12, 2025 under the existing structure and submit Form VIII for December 2025 under both old and new codes. Conforming amendments have also been made in Annexes I and II and to references relating to State Government Securities.
Link – https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=13226&Mode=0
