Reserve Bank of India (Small Finance Banks – Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025 (Updated as on July 01, 2026)

1. Credit reporting for SFBs

This paper sets what small finance banks must send to the credit bureaus.

2. Start date

These Directions came into effect on the day RBI issued them.

3. Who is covered

These Directions apply to every small finance bank.

1. Joining fee cap

The one-time fee to join a CIC cannot exceed ₹10,000.

BankPulse example. A lender joins a credit information company. The one-time membership fee may not be more than ₹10,000. A second bureau may charge its own ₹10,000, because the cap is for each one.

2. Yearly fee cap

The yearly fee a CIC can charge a bank is capped at ₹5,000.

3. CIC membership duty

Every credit institution must become a member of all RBI-registered credit information companies.

1. Standard formats

Credit data must be reported to CICs using RBI's standard formats.

2. Four days to send it

The data must reach the bureaus within four calendar days of the cut-off date.

3. Late filers are named

Bureaus must report late filers to RBI twice a year, at 31 March and 30 September.

4. A wrong debit is disputed

A wrong debit or a contested charge is reported as disputed, never as settled.

5. Relationship Segment data

Relationship Segment data reporting is mandatory for all accounts opened on or after July 1, 2018.

6. Ten per cent triggers detail

Above ten per cent bad loans in the group segment, detail is collected on loans over ₹20,000.

7. Not a condition, accounts

This data must never be made a condition of opening the group's savings account.

8. No fees from that lender

Bureaus may not charge it annual or membership fees.

9. Data Quality reviews

Banks must review their Data Quality Index every six months.

10. Two months to top table

A report on the problems found and fixed goes to top management within two months of half year end.

11. Send it to all bureaus

Borrower credit data, past data included, must go to every credit bureau.

12. Weekly reporting dates

Banks must report credit data to credit information companies four times a month. The days are the 9th, the 16th, the 23rd and the last day.

13. Monthly data file

Banks must also send a full month-end credit data file. It goes to the credit information companies by the 5th of the next month.

14. Leave no repayment out

Records must be kept current and no repayment, not even the last one, may go unreported.

15. Report the settlement reason

Where a compromise settlement is made, the case and the reason must be reported.

16. Report a paper default

The paying agent must also report any failure to redeem the paper.

17. Bureaus explain cross reporting

Where one party is a borrower and the other a co-borrower, the bureau must set out the rule.

18. Report the KYC number

The central KYC number of a borrower must be reported wherever it is held.

19. Report each group member

A lender to a self help group must report data for each member of the group.

20. Trace members both ways

The report must let a bureau find every member of a group and every group of a member.

21. Build the systems for it

Systems and software must be changed to collect and report group member data.

22. But the lender answers

Where it is given out, the lender must control the correctness of what is submitted.

23. Fix and resend rejected data

Data a bureau rejects must be corrected and sent again by the next reporting date.

24. A data quality score

Bureaus must give each lender a data quality index for each segment.

25. Keep to the statutory clock

The time limits in the Act for updating and correcting data and settling disputes must be met.

26. Report delays to Board

Any breach of those time limits must be reported to the Board's customer service committee.

27. A way in for corrections

There must be a way for a customer to ask for his credit record to be corrected.

28. Fix it at the source

Wrong data must be corrected by the lender that first sent it.

29. Pull a report before lending

The loan policy must require credit reports to be taken before a credit decision.

30. Update the list monthly

The list of possessed secured assets must be updated every month.

31. Show what is possessed

Assets possessed under the enforcement Act must be shown.

32. One common format

Reporting uses one non-proprietary format for everyone, the Uniform Credit Reporting Format.

33. What a full file holds

A full file holds every live account and every account closed since the last report.

34. Three more dates a month

On the 9th, 16th and 23rd only new and changed accounts need be sent.

35. No consent clause needed

Since the Act came into force, a borrower's consent to report is no longer needed.

36. Report the directors too

In the commercial segment the company number and the directors' credit history are reported.

37. Send part overdues raw

Part instalment overdues are sent as they stand; filtering is left to the user of the data.

38. Settled means a waiver

The status settled is for cases where a waiver was given because the borrower could not pay.

39. Commercial paper twice a month

The paying agent reports commercial paper to the bureaus every fortnight.

40. Each agent reports its share

Where a paper has several agents, each reports the part it holds.

41. Investors need not report

A lender that only invested in the paper need not report it.

42. Unhedged exposure twice a month

Unhedged foreign currency exposure of a borrower is reported every fortnight.

43. Tribunal cases are suit filed

A case admitted to the insolvency tribunal is reported as a suit filed case.

44. Monthly list of defaulters

Bureaus send RBI a monthly list of lenders not following the reporting rules.

45. Outsourcing is allowed

Collecting and reporting group member data may be done in house or given out.

46. Non-compliance costs the target

Group loans reported wrongly stop counting towards the priority sector target.

47. Savings from members are out

Lending among group members out of their own savings is not covered.

48. A policy for reported defaults

A policy is needed for handling loan requests from members a bureau reports in default.

49. A note if licence goes

If a lender's licence is cancelled, the bureaus must add a note to its borrowers' records.

50. Access only to old borrowers

It may see reports only on borrowers taken on before the licence went.

51. Cancelled-licence reporting

Banks whose licence RBI cancelled must still keep reporting old borrowers.

52. Sold assets come off

An asset already sold under the enforcement Act need not stay on the website.

1. A working group on formats

A technical working group must be formed to keep the data formats current.

2. Review the formats yearly

That group must review the reporting formats at least once a year.

3. Meet once a year

The group must meet at least once in a calendar year.

4. Sub-group meets twice a year

The sub-group must meet at least twice a year on reporting issues.

5. Everyone sits on it

The group draws members from every kind of lender and every bureau.

6. Bureaus convene by turn

The four bureaus take the chair by rotation, in alphabetical order.

7. A sub-group of experts

A standing sub-group advises the working group on the technical side.

8. RBI clears its members

The convenor picks the sub-group's members with RBI's prior approval.

1. ₹100-a-day compensation

A complainant gets ₹100 per day if their complaint isn't resolved within 30 days.

2. Five-day payout

Compensation must reach the complainant's bank account within 5 working days of resolution.

3. Complaints officer

Every bank must have a dedicated officer for customer credit-data complaints.

4. Root cause analysis

Banks must do a root cause analysis of complaints at least twice a year.

5. Ombudsman Scheme rules

Banks under the RBI Ombudsman Scheme must follow its rules.

1. First-time borrowers

Banks should not reject first-time borrowers just for having no credit history.

1. Older rules cancelled

This cancels all earlier RBI rules on credit information reporting for commercial banks.

2. Old actions preserved

Action already started under the old rules stays governed by those old rules.

3. RBI's reading final

RBI's reading of these Directions is final and binding on everyone.