RBI Draft Amendment Directions For NBFCs

In February 2026, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued draft amendment directions to the RBI (Non-Banking Financial Companies – Registration, Exemptions and Framework for Scale Based Regulation) Directions, 2025 ("Directions"). The draft has been released for public comments and is proposed to come into effect from 1 April 2026. The key objective is to provide regulatory relief to certain lowrisk NBFCs while maintaining supervisory oversight.

Position Under the Existing Framework

If a company meets the 'principal business' criteria, it is generally required to obtain a certificate of registration (CoR) from the RBI, unless it falls within a specific exemption category. Even NBFCs that were relatively low-risk—i.e., those not taking public funds and not having any customer interface—were still required to hold a CoR and were regulated under the Directions. Such entities were classified within the lowest regulatory layer under the Directions and are commonly