The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued 244 “master directions,” withdrawing or consolidating nearly 9.4k legacy circulars to facilitate compliance and improve regulatory clarity across the financial sector, the central bank said in a statement. All new master guidelines have been published on the RBI website — you can check them out here.

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What changed: The central bank consolidated some 3.5k regulatory circulars and guidelines — overseen by RBI’s Department of Regulation — into master directions while repealing some 5.6k obsolete circulars. The new framework applies to 11 regulated entity categories, including commercial banks, small finance banks, payments banks, local area banks, regional rural banks, urban and rural cooperative banks, non-banking financial companies, all-India financial institutions, asset reconstruction companies, and credit-information companies.

Why it matters: Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu said the restructuring is aimed at improving regulatory instructions’ accessibility and consistency while simplifying navigation for regulated entities. The central bank reviewed over 770 stakeholder submissions before finalizing the framework. The update follows RBI’s efforts to standardize regulatory formulation processes and support operational ease in India’s financial system.

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