Retail & Secured Lending
Topics in this cluster
Home Loans soon
Rolling out as the engine processes RBI’s history
Loan Against Property soon
Rolling out as the engine processes RBI’s history
Personal Loans soon
Rolling out as the engine processes RBI’s history
Credit Cards soon
Rolling out as the engine processes RBI’s history
Gold Loan soon
Rolling out as the engine processes RBI’s history
Mapped Master Direction families
Department of Regulation 1459 docs
Prudential, licensing & governance norms for banks and NBFCs.
Consumer Protection 13 docs
Customer service, grievance redress & the ombudsman scheme.
Latest in this cluster
Publishing in progress…
Key explainers across the rulebook
- RTGS vs NEFT — how the RBI's two main fund-transfer systems differ.
- Repo rate vs reverse repo rate — the RBI's policy-rate corridor and Liquidity Adjustment Facility.
- CRR vs SLR — the two reserve requirements banks must maintain, explained.
Key comparisons bankers search for
Side-by-side plain-English answers to the highest-intent “X vs Y” retail-lending questions, each cross-linked to the glossary definitions and the official RBI rules in our Master Direction crosswalk. under the editorial review of Vikram Jain.
What is the difference between EBLR and MCLR?
The External Benchmark Lending Rate (EBLR) ties a bank’s floating retail and micro/small-enterprise loan rates to an external benchmark — usually the RBI repo rate — plus a spread, so policy-rate changes pass through to borrowers quickly and transparently; it is mandatory for most new floating-rate retail and MSE loans since October 2019. MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate) is the older internal benchmark based on a bank’s own marginal cost of funds, and still applies to many corporate and legacy loans. In short: EBLR is repo-linked and externally set; MCLR is cost-of-funds-linked and internally set. Both replaced the earlier Base Rate. See the RBI rules in the Department of Regulation crosswalk.
What is the difference between a secured and an unsecured loan?
A secured loan is backed by collateral the borrower pledges — property, gold, a vehicle or a deposit — so on default the lender can enforce the security, including under the SARFAESI Act for eligible secured creditors. Because the lender’s risk is lower, secured loans usually carry lower interest rates and larger ticket sizes (home loans, loan against property, gold loans). An unsecured loan has no collateral and relies on the borrower’s credit profile and income (personal loans, most credit-card debt), so it carries higher rates and tighter limits. RBI fair-practice, Key Facts Statement and provisioning rules apply to both. See the RBI rules in the Department of Regulation crosswalk.
What is the difference between a fixed-rate and a floating-rate loan?
On a fixed-rate loan the interest rate stays constant for the agreed term, so the EMI is predictable regardless of RBI policy moves — useful when rates are expected to rise. On a floating-rate loan the rate moves with its benchmark (for most new retail loans, the repo-linked EBLR, or for legacy loans the MCLR), so EMIs fall when the RBI cuts and rise when it hikes. RBI rules require lenders to give floating-rate retail borrowers a Key Facts Statement and, on any reset, the option to switch to a fixed rate, extend the tenor or raise the EMI. In short: fixed = certainty; floating = pass-through of rate changes. See the RBI rules in the Department of Regulation crosswalk.