Penal charges by lenders on RBI radar, to come out with a paper

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon come out with draft guidelines on charging of penal charges by its regulated entities, acceptance of green deposits, Governor Shaktikanta Das announced on Wednesday. Announcing the 25 basis points (bps) hike in the repo rate to 6.5 per cent, Das also said the central bank has decided to extend UPI to inbound travellers, expanding the scope of Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) and launch a pilot project on QR Code-based Coin Vending Machine in 12 cities.

Pointing out that the RBI-regulated entities follow divergent practices on levying penal charges and in some cases excessive charges, the Governor said draft guidelines will be issued on the subject to enhance transparency, reasonableness and protection of the consumers. Das also said based on the feedback received on the discussion paper on Climate Risk and Sustainable Finance issued in July 2022, the RBI will issue guidelines on (i) a broad framework for acceptance of Green Deposits; (ii) disclosure framework on Climate-related Financial Risks; and (iii) guidance on Climate Scenario Analysis and Stress Testing.

According to the Governor, the TReDs will be expanded by A(i) providing insurance facility for invoice financing; (ii) permitting all entities/institutions undertaking factoring business to participate as financiers in TReDS; and (iii) permitting rediscounting of invoices (that is, developing a secondary market in TReDS). He said these measures are expected to improve the cash flows of the MSMEs. Pointing out that the UPI has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India, Das added that it now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments while they are in the country.

"To begin with, this facility will be extended to travellers from G20 countries arriving at select international airports." The RBI Governor also announced the launch of a pilot project on QR Code-based Coin Vending Machine in 12 cities. These vending machines will dispense coins against debit to the customer's account using UPI instead of physical tendering of banknotes and this will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins, he said. Based on the learnings from the pilot, guidelines will be issued to banks to promote distribution of coins using these machines, he added. 

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