Legal tender exemption for specified bank notes allows limited transactions and mandatory record-keeping during transitional period.
The Central Government provided a temporary legal tender exemption for the specified bank notes, permitting their use for narrowly defined transactions-payments at Government hospitals and pharmacies with prescription, ticket purchases at railway, government bus and airline counters, authorised consumer cooperative stores and milk booths, fuel stations of public sector oil companies, crematoria and burial grounds, and limited exchanges by international passengers and foreign tourists-and required all such establishments to maintain complete accounts and records of stock and sales of transactions effected with the specified bank notes during the transitional period.

Rupee denominated bonds overseas permitted for bank capital instruments and infrastructure and affordable housing financing.
Banks may issue rupee denominated bonds overseas to raise funds through perpetual debt instruments qualifying as Additional Tier 1 capital, debt instruments qualifying as Tier 2 capital, and to finance infrastructure and affordable housing, subject to applicable prudential norms and FEMA guidelines and relevant existing instructions.

Bank Rate reduction announced; penal interest rates linked to it revised for reserve requirement shortfalls, effective immediately.
Bank Rate adjusted downward by 25 basis points to 6.75%, effective October 04, 2016, and penal interest rates linked to shortfalls in reserve requirements revised accordingly, with revised penal charges specified in the annex and applicable depending on the duration of shortfalls.

Acceptance of cash over the counter: banks must accept declarants' tax deposits under the scheme while following KYC.
Banks must accept cash over the counter from any customer, irrespective of amount, for payment of tax dues under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016, including deposits via challan ITNS-286, and must apply Know Your Customer procedures in accordance with the Master Direction on Know Your Customer, 2016; banks should issue immediate branch-level instructions to implement this requirement.

Indian Accounting Standards implementation requires AIFIs to prepare proforma Ind AS statements and disclose ECL methodologies for regulatory review.
Select All India Term Lending and Refinancing Institutions must adopt Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) on the prescribed transition timeline for both standalone and consolidated financial statements; early adoption is prohibited. Boards must oversee implementation with a Steering Committee and quarterly Audit Committee reporting. AIFIs must prepare and submit proforma Ind AS financial statements and detailed reconciliations and disclosures to the Reserve Bank, including comprehensive Ind AS 109 expected credit loss methodologies, while assessing impacts on capital adequacy. Directions issued under Section 45L require strict compliance.

Foreign investment limits in credit information companies permit higher participation subject to ownership diversification, board composition, reporting and restrictions.
RBI directs that any person's direct or indirect investment in a Credit Information Company shall not exceed ten percent of the equity, while allowing the Reserve Bank to permit higher foreign participation for investors with established credit bureau track records subject to ownership diversification, specified board composition, and preference for listed investors. FII/FPI investment is permitted under conditions including single-entity holding limits, mandatory reporting for acquisitions beyond a minimal shareholding, and prohibition on board representation. Where the investor is a wholly owned subsidiary of an investment holding company, applicable conditions apply to the operating group company providing technical know-how.

Investment Advisory Services must be offered through arm's-length SEBI-registered subsidiaries, not departmentally, ensuring regulatory compliance.
Banks are prohibited from providing Investment Advisory Services departmentally; such services must be offered only through a separate subsidiary or an existing subsidiary maintained at arm's length. Sponsor banks must obtain prior regulatory approval before using or creating a subsidiary for this purpose, and all bank sponsored subsidiaries offering investment advice must register with SEBI and comply with SEBI (Investment Advisors) Regulations while restricting advice to products banks are permitted to deal in and adhering to applicable KYC/AML/CFT requirements.

Provisioning for fraud accounts: banks must recognise exposure immediately or elect staged provisioning to smooth profit impact.
Banks must normally provide for the entire amount due on fraud detection, allowing adjustment for eligible financial collateral under Basel III; alternatively, they may spread provisioning over up to four consecutive quarters from detection. If full provisioning spills into a subsequent financial year, the unprovided balance at year-end must be debited from other reserves to provisions and thereafter reversed proportionately while charging profit and loss to complete provisioning. Banks must disclose number and amounts of frauds, provisions made, and unamortised provisions debited from other reserves, and adhere to fraud classification and reporting rules.

Cash Reserve Ratio maintenance reduced under Section 42(1), lowering banks' daily compliance burden and easing liquidity management.
Change under Section 42(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act reduces the daily minimum Cash Reserve Ratio maintenance obligation, lowering the daily compliance threshold banks must hold and thereby easing intrafortnight liquidity requirements; the reduction is communicated by Reserve Bank circular to scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and scheduled cooperative banks with a specified effective fortnight.

Bank rate reduction lowers penal interest on reserve shortfalls, changing penalty calculations for banks from the effective date.
Bank rate reduced by seventy-five basis points, changing the reference rate used to compute penal interest on shortfalls in reserve requirements. Penal interest rates linked to the Bank Rate remain expressed as the Bank Rate plus specified margins and are revised downward to reflect the lower Bank Rate; banks must apply the revised structure from the effective date in the circular.

Special clearing for government transactions requires banks to participate and maintain settlement balances and infrastructure.
Directive mandates special clearing on March 30-31, 2016 for Government receipts and payments, with specified presentation and return session timings (single session for CTS 2010 and non CTS 2010 in CTS grids; locally determined timings for non MICR/ECCS centers). All clearing house member banks must participate, keep inward clearing infrastructure open during special hours and maintain sufficient clearing settlement balances. Outward participation depends on instruments received for government accounts. Banks must also be ready to operate RTGS/NEFT during extended windows as instructed.

March residual transactions: require segregated scrolls and separate reporting to secure correct year end accounting.
Nodal/Focal Point branches must segregate March transactions from April transactions during the initial April reporting period by preparing distinct main scrolls and daily summaries: one set marked as March Residual for transactions effected in March or earlier, serially numbered and reported separately via Daily Memos to the Link Cell for separate settlement with central accounts, and another set for current April transactions. Cheques realized on or before the last day of March are treated as March Residual even if reported in April; cheques realized after are treated as next year transactions.

Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016: mandatory KYC/CDD, digital/V CIP onboarding, CKYCR uploads, risk based monitoring and sanctions screening.
Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016 mandates board approved KYC/AML/CFT policies for all RBI regulated entities, prescribes definitions, CDD/CIP requirements including beneficial owner identification, a risk based approach with customer risk categorisation and periodic KYC updation, and authorises Digital KYC, Aadhaar e KYC and V CIP subject to technical and security standards. REs must upload KYC records to CKYCR, retain transaction/identification records, file STR/CTR with FIU IND, screen daily against sanctions lists and implement wire transfer information requirements, with enhanced due diligence for high risk customers and specified procedures for small accounts and simplified onboarding.

Off-site ATM authorisation expanded: banks may offer all products via ATMs if technology permits and fraud controls are in place.
Banks may offer the full range of products and services through ATM channels provided technology permits and adequate controls are implemented to prevent misuse and fraud; off-site ATM deployment continues under the conditional framework established by prior branch authorisation guidance, without the need for case-by-case permission.

Sovereign Gold Bond framework: eligibility, pricing basis, interest payment, redemption terms, SLR and collateral rules clarified.
Sovereign Gold Bonds set out eligibility (residents, individuals, trusts, institutions), issuance in Government of India Stock with holding certificates and de-mat conversion, denomination in gram units, price and redemption fixed by prior week's simple average closing price for 999 purity gold, permitted payment modes through authorised receiving offices, fixed annual interest paid half-yearly, maturity with pre-mature redemption from the fifth year, SLR eligibility, use as collateral subject to ordinary gold loan LTV rules, taxable interest and capital gains treatment aligned with physical gold, and prescribed forms and transfer, nomination and tradability procedures under the Government Securities Act and Regulations.