The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deferred the implementation of its revised Basel III disclosure framework for banks by six months, pushing the effective date to April 1, 2027, after lenders sought additional time to upgrade their systems and reporting processes.
In a notification issued on Thursday, the central bank said the implementation timeline had been extended from the earlier deadline to allow banks to strengthen their information technology infrastructure, internal reporting mechanisms and validation processes required under the new disclosure regime.
The RBI also aligned the rollout of the revised disclosure framework with two other key regulatory changes—the Expected Credit Loss (ECL) framework and the revised capital charge norms for credit risk—both of which are also scheduled to come into effect on April 1, 2027.
Under the revised schedule, banks will make their first quarterly disclosures for the quarter ended June 30, 2027, followed by half-yearly disclosures from the quarter ending September 30, 2027, and annual disclosures from March 31, 2028, the notification said.
The Basel III framework, an internationally accepted set of banking regulations, requires lenders to disclose detailed information on their capital position, risk exposure and risk management practices to improve transparency and strengthen market discipline.
Draft framework proposed broader disclosures
The RBI had, on May 19, proposed an overhauled disclosure framework under Basel III norms that would require banks to publish more granular information on capital adequacy, leverage, liquidity and risk exposure in a standardised format.
Under the draft framework, banks would be required to make quarterly disclosures covering key prudential metrics, including Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital, total capital, risk-weighted assets (RWAs), leverage ratio, liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and net stable funding ratio (NSFR).
Lenders would also be required to explain significant changes in these metrics from previous reporting periods and the factors driving such movements.
The proposed framework further requires banks to provide qualitative and quantitative disclosures describing their principal business activities, significant risks, and the processes adopted to identify, measure and manage those risks.
Additionally, banks will be required to maintain a dedicated Regulatory Disclosure Section on their websites and archive all Pillar 3 disclosure reports for at least 10 years, allowing market participants easier access to historical regulatory disclosures.
The RBI had initially proposed implementing the final directions from the quarter ended September 30, 2026, after seeking stakeholder comments on the draft circular. However, the timeline has now been revised to align with the broader Basel III implementation roadmap, according to the notification.