Reserve Bank of India (Rural Co-operative Banks – Miscellaneous) Directions, 2025
RBI master-direction RBI/DOR/2025-26/319 · 28 Nov 2025
RBI master-direction RBI/DOR/2025-26/319 · 28 Nov 2025
Summary
Check the official recordThe Reserve Bank of India issued these Directions to regulate miscellaneous operational and administrative matters for Rural Co-operative Banks. The Directions mandate Board-approved policies for mandatory leave and business continuity planning. Banks must transfer unclaimed deposits to the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund and follow specific procedures for registration, transfers, and refund claims via the e-Kuber system. The Directions also establish norms for name changes, display of bank names, and inclusion in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Furthermore, the Directions prohibit association with prize chit schemes, lottery tickets, and deposit acceptance by private financiers. Banks must comply with these requirements immediately. Existing guidelines on these subjects are repealed.
What you must do
Key dates
Who is affected
Thresholds
If you do not comply
RBI/DOR/2025-26/319 DOR.SOG(SPE).REC.No.332/13-04-001/2025-26 December 04, 2025
In exercise of powers conferred by Section 26A and Section 35A read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, as amended vide Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act 2020 (39 of 2020) and all other provisions / laws enabling the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) in this regard, RBI being satisfied that it is necessary and expedient in the public interest so to do, hereby issues these Directions hereinafter specified.
These Directions shall be called the Reserve Bank of India (Rural Co-operative Banks – Miscellaneous) Directions, 2025.
These Directions shall come into force with immediate effect.
In this context, rural co-operative banks shall mean State Co-operative Banks and Central Co-operative Banks, unless specified otherwise, as defined in the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981.
In these Directions, unless the context otherwise requires, 'Act' means the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949).
All other expressions, unless defined in the individual chapters below, shall have the same meaning as have been assigned to them under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, or the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereto, or Glossary of Terms published by the RBI, or as used in commercial parlance, as the case may be.
(1) ‘Mandatory Leave’ as specified in paragraph 45 of these Directions.
(2) Business Continuity Plan (BCP) as specified in paragraph 48(1) of these Directions.
(1) ‘Committee’ means the Committee constituted under the Fund;
(2) 'Fund' means the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund established by RBI under the Scheme notified vide Gazette Notification dated May 24, 2014, hereinafter referred to as the Scheme;
(3) 'Liquidator' means liquidator of a bank appointed under any law for the time being in force;
(4) 'Principal amount' means the amount, including interest, transferred by a bank to the Fund in terms of Section 26A of the Act; and
(5) 'Amount due' means any credit balances in any account or any deposit in a bank remaining unclaimed or inoperative for ten years or more.
Explanation: A bank shall deposit the amounts to be credited to the Fund in the specified account maintained with RBI. The procedure for transfer is specified in paragraph 18 of these Directions.
A bank shall transfer to the Fund the entire amount as specified in the above paragraph, including the accrued interest that the bank would have been required to pay to the customer / depositor as on the date of transfer to the Fund.
Any expenditure incurred for the promotion of depositors’ education, awareness, interests and other purposes that may be specified by RBI under Section 26A (4) of the Act, shall be charged to the Fund.
Explanation: While there is no specific time limit prescribed in the Scheme for claiming a refund from the Fund by a customer / depositor, customers, depositors or legal heirs [in case of deceased depositor(s)] are encouraged to claim such amounts as soon as they become aware of unclaimed amounts.
The interest payable, if any, from the Fund on a claim shall accrue only from the date on which the balance in an account was transferred to the Fund to the date of payment to the customer / depositor. No interest shall be payable in respect of amounts refunded from the Fund, in respect of which no interest was payable by the bank to its customer / depositor.
A bank shall calculate the interest payable (by a bank to its depositors / claimants) on principal amount of unclaimed interest bearing deposits transferred to the Fund at the rate of 4 percent per annum up to June 30, 2018, 3.5 percent w.e.f. July 1, 2018 up to May 10, 2021 and at 3 percent with effect from May 11, 2021 till the time of payment to the depositor / claimant. Changes to the rate of interest, if any, payable on the principal amount transferred to the Fund shall be specified by RBI from time to time.
Explanation: The amount of interest payable in this behalf shall be calculated in the manner specified in paragraph 13 of these Directions and by rounding off the amount of interest to the nearest rupee.