Banking & Finance

Introduction The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a set of Governance Amendment Directions dated July 14, 2026, fundamentally restructuring the framework governing matters that banks must place before their Boards of Directors. Effective from October 1, 2026, these Directions apply across Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks (SFBs), Payments Banks, and Local Area Banks (LABs). The amendments carry the statutory authority of Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 19

On August 19, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) passed an ex-parte interim order against two entities, Copthall Mauritius Investment Limited (a foreign portfolio investor and unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co.) and Mansi Share and Stock Broking Private Limited, for prima facie manipulation of the Sensex closing price during the Closing Auction Session (CAS) on August 13, 2026. The regulator found that both entities had placed large, aggressive, and strategical

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reinstated the Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) framework for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), effectively reversing restrictions introduced under the RBI Digital Lending Directions, 2025 that had required lenders to exclude such guarantees from loss estimates on loans originated through fintech partners. The amendment, issued through the RBI (Non-Banking Financial Companies, Income Recognition, Asset Classification and Provisioning) Am

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has reaffirmed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Mohit Gupta, proprietor of Safe Trading, for operating as an unregistered investment adviser in violation of the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013. The order, which follows a reconsideration directed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), retains the penalty under Section 15HA of the SEBI Act, 1992, and forms part of the regulator's intensifying crackdown on individuals

On April 29, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India issued the RBI (Non-Banking Financial Companies - Registration, Exemptions and Framework for Scale Based Regulation) Amendment Directions, 2026, effective from July 1, 2026. The Amendment Directions introduce a significant new concept in NBFC regulation: the 'Unregistered Type I NBFC,' a category of non-banking financial company that is exempt from the mandatory registration requirement under Section 45-IA of the Reserve Bank of In

Introduction Payment Aggregators (PAs) play a central role in India's digital payments ecosystem by enabling merchants to accept online, physical, and cross-border payments without establishing direct relationships with banks and payment networks. Under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007 (PSS Act), no entity other than the Reserve Bank of India may operate a payment system without authorisation. The RBI first issued comprehensive PA guidelines in March 2020, followed

Foreign companies with subsidiaries in India frequently need to repatriate dividends and profits to their home country. Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, dividends are classified as current account transactions, making them freely repatriable without prior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval, provided all applicable taxes have been paid and regulatory procedures are followed. However, the process involves multiple compliance steps across FEMA, the Incom

Introduction The Reserve Bank of India has taken a significant step toward simplifying the regulatory process for institutional investors seeking to acquire meaningful stakes in Indian banks. On July 14, 2026, the RBI published the draft "Reserve Bank of India (Acquisition and Holding of Shares or Voting Rights) Amendment Directions, 2026," proposing a standing approval mechanism that would spare qualifying institutional investors the need to seek fresh clearance every time t

Introduction The Reserve Bank of India, through a notification dated April 30, 2026, has issued the FEMA (Authorised Persons) Regulations 2026, marking the most comprehensive overhaul of the authorised dealer and money changer licensing architecture under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Issued under Section 10 and Section 47 of FEMA, these regulations replace the earlier framework governing authorised persons who deal in foreign exchange, introducing a modernised,

The Supreme Court has held that the initial burden of raising a defence that the complainant lacked the financial capacity to advance a loan rests on the accused and must ordinarily be taken in the reply to the statutory demand notice issued under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. A bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan delivered the judgment in Kuntegowda v. Thurubaiah, clarifying the procedural requirements and the burden of proof rega

The Supreme Court of India has stayed the Delhi High Court's judgment of July 1, 2026, which declared the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) a public authority under the Right to Information Act, 2005. A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice in the appeal filed by the NSE and directed that the interim stay on the Central Information Commission's (CIC) order of June 7, 2007, shall continue to operate until further orders. The sta

The Supreme Court of India on July 31, 2026, affirmed a Delhi High Court ruling that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cannot freeze bank accounts under Section 17(1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) on the basis of mere suspicion. A bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu dismissed the ED's special leave petition, upholding the principle that the statutory standard of "reasons to believe" must be satisfied before any freezing orde

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has launched a Settlement Helpdesk Facility to assist applicants in filing settlement applications under the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, 2018. Announced through Press Release No. 38/2026 dated July 1, 2026, the facility provides a dedicated channel for prospective applicants to understand the settlement process, compute indicative settlement amounts, and track the status of pending applications. The initiative i

The Kerala High Court, in a judgment delivered on July 13, 2026, has held that banks are entitled to consider the credit score and credit report of a co-borrower when deciding an application for an educational loan. Justice M.A. Abdul Hakhim, in Dilha Jan Govindan v. State Bank of India (Neutral Citation: 2026:KER:51085), dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by students whose educational loan applications were rejected because their parents, who were to sign as co-borrow

The Supreme Court of India, in a decision cited as 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 701 and delivered on July 21, 2026, quashed criminal proceedings that had been pending for 23 years against Standard Chartered Bank under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (FERA). The Court held that the prosecution had failed to comply with the mandatory procedural requirement under the proviso to Section 61(2) of FERA, which required that the accused be given an opportunity to show that the impugne