Ease of compliance: RBI scraps 5,673 circulars; issues 244 master directions to streamline rules
In all, 9,446 circulars have been repealed, subsumed or withdrawn as part of the exercise, Deputy Governor S C Murmu said, describing the review as a “mammoth exercise” in which RBI officers examined decades of guidance issued since the bank’s incorporation in 1935.
“We were just writing circulars as needed; there were no sunset clauses on them,” he said.Murmu said the oldest circular dated to 1944 and that the “fundamental reorganisation” of the regulatory architecture is intended to reduce compliance costs by making rules more accessible to regulated entities.
He added that the exercise was driven by Governor Sanjay Malhotra’s focus on ease of compliance and completed under a tight deadline.The RBI first released a draft of 238 MDs in October and published the final set of 244 MDs on Friday.
The final package includes seven new MDs in digital banking.
Henceforth, Murmu said, new guidelines will be issued either as amendments to an MD or as new MDs, and additions will continue to be colour-coded for stakeholders.There are 11 types of regulatory entities covered in the MDs, including commercial banks and small finance banks; commercial banks will need to consult 32 MDs relevant to their operations.
A small number of circulars deemed still relevant but not fitting any MD have been retained separately, Murmu said.The RBI said the consolidation involved no substantive changes to regulations and focused mainly on deletion and re-classification.
The move is in line with broader government efforts to repeal obsolete laws and follows similar modernisation drives by other regulators, including SEBI.
