The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on November 28, 2025, issued the Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks - Branch Authorisation) Directions, 2025 to consolidate rules on opening, shifting, merging and closing of banking outlets and related off-site units. The Directions define key terms (Banking Outlet, Digital Banking Unit/DBU, Back Office, Administrative Office, Unbanked Rural Centre, etc.), set the scope and applicability to commercial banks (excluding SFBs, Payment Banks and Local Area Banks), and prescribe minimum service standards (hours, signage, monitoring and grievance mechanisms) for fixed-point service delivery.These directions shall come into force with immediate effect.
The RBI, requires banks’ boards to adopt board-approved policies for branch network decisions, DBUs, Business Correspondents (BCs), Mobile/Off-site ATMs and Doorstep Banking, and assigns clear oversight duties — including regular on-site/off-site monitoring, financial-inclusion targets, periodic review of BC operations and remuneration, cyber-security and customer-education for digital channels. The Directions also lay down detailed eligibility and engagement norms for BCs/Business Facilitators, operational, risk-management and transparency requirements for doorstep banking, and infrastructure and service standards for DBUs.
The operational procedures, reporting obligations and compliance measures: applications and branch-authorisation rules, special provisions for foreign bank branches and mobile/off-site devices, mandatory data reporting on outlets and DBUs, and provisions for repeal, interpretation and interplay with other laws. Non-compliance attracts supervisory measures under the Banking Regulation Act, and banks must maintain required records and furnish data to RBI on request.
[Notification No. RBI/DOR/2025-26/147]
