RBI Decides To Do Away With IFR Requirements For Banks

The Reserve Bank on Wednesday decided to dispense with the Investment Fluctuation Reserve (IFR), an additional buffer which banks were required to maintain to hedge against depreciation in the value of investments, as a measure to support capital adequacy of lenders.

Banks currently maintain IFR as an additional buffer against depreciation in the value of their investments, subject to mark-to-market (MTM) requirements.

Currently, commercial banks (including Local Area Banks, but excluding Small Finance Banks, Payment Banks and Regional Rural Banks) already maintain capital charge for market risk and also follow revised norms on classification, valuation, and operation of investment portfolio.

In consideration of these applicable prudential requirements, it is proposed to dispense with the IFR requirement for such commercial banks, RBI said in its statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies.

The existing guidelines for other bank categories are also being revised to address the operational challenges encountered by such banks in complying with the regulatory thresholds on IFR and to harmonise instructions across bank categories, thereby enhancing regulatory clarity and consistency. Draft directions in this regard will be issued shortly for public consultation, it said.

Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra proposed to remove the condition regarding NPA provisioning for inclusion of quarterly profits in CRAR (Capital to Risk-weighted Assets Ratio) computation.

As per the extant guidelines, commercial banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks and Local Area Banks) are permitted to include quarterly net profits in the calculation of CRAR provided that the incremental provisions made for Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) at the end of any of the four quarters of the previous financial year, have not deviated more than 25% of the average of the four quarters.

In a review, it is proposed to dispense with this condition. The draft amendment directions in this regard will be issued for public comments shortly, Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies said.