The Reserve Bank on India on Friday hiked the threshold for bulk fixed deposits to ₹3 crore from existing ₹2 crore with a view to improve asset liability management of banks.
Bulk fixed deposits earn slightly higher interest rate than retail term deposits as banks offer different rates as part of their liquidity management exercise.
Now single rupee term deposits of up to ₹2 crore with Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks) and Small Finance Banks will be part of retail fixed deposits.
On a review of the bulk deposit limit, it is proposed to revise the definition of bulk deposits as 'Single Rupee term deposit of ₹3 crore and above' for SCBs (excluding RRBs) and SFBs, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the bi-monthly policy.
Further, it is also proposed to define the bulk deposit limit for Local Area Banks as 'Single Rupee term deposits of ₹1 crore and above', as applicable in case of RRBs.
UPI Lite
The Reserve Bank on Friday proposed a facility to allow customers to automatically replenish their UPI Lite wallets to promote small-value digital payments.
Currently, the UPI Lite has a daily limit of ₹2,000, while the upper limit for a single payment is ₹500.
UPI Lite is a simplified version of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). It acts as an on-device wallet for small-value transactions.
Presently, the UPI Lite app can only hold a maximum of ₹2,000 at a time.
"To encourage wider adoption of UPI Lite, it is now proposed to bring it under the e-mandate framework by introducing a facility for customers to automatically replenish their UPI Lite wallets if the balance goes below the threshold limit set by them," Das said.
Digital payments
The RBI has proposed to set up a "Digital Payments Intelligence Platform", which will harness advanced technologies to mitigate payment fraud risks.
It has constituted a committee under A.P. Hota, former MD and CEO of NPCI, to examine various aspects of setting up a digital public infrastructure for digital payments intelligence platform.
The committee will give its recommendations in two months.
