RBI To Banks: No More Secret Deals On Bulk Deposit Rates From October 1

Two companies deposit Rs 5 crore each with the same bank on the same morning. One gets 7.2 per cent. The other gets 6.8 per cent. Until now, that gap could exist simply because one treasury officer negotiated harder, or knew someone at the bank. From October 1, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India is making that scenario a rule violation.

The change comes via the Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Interest Rate on Deposits) Second Amendment Directions, 2026, notified on July 30, 2026. The RBI has issued matching directions for small finance banks, regional rural banks, payment banks, local area banks and urban co-operative banks, so the new regime is not limited to commercial banks alone.

The rules zero in on bulk deposits, single fixed deposits of Rs 3 crore or above, the domain of corporate treasuries, large businesses, trusts and high net worth individuals rather than everyday savers.

Pricing in this segment has traditionally happened behind closed doors. A bank could, and often did, offer one rate to a favoured institutional client and a lower one to another depositor placing a similar sum the same day, with neither party any the wiser. The RBI's amended directions are designed to bring that negotiation out into the open.

A public, time-stamped rate every morning. Commercial banks must publish their bulk deposit rates on their websites by 10:00 am each business day, with a 10-minute grace period extending the deadline to 10:10 am. Whatever rate a bank actually offers a depositor must match this published figure, there is no longer room for a rate quoted privately that differs from what appears online.

One rate, regardless of who's asking. Banks must charge the same interest rate on deposits of an identical amount placed on the same date, across every branch and every customer. The days of a preferred client quietly securing a better deal than a walk-in depositor placing the same sum are, on paper, over.

More room to price genuine risk. The one change that loosens rather than tightens the rules concerns the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), a global framework under which deposits are assigned a "run-off rate", essentially, how likely they are to be withdrawn suddenly during financial stress. Corporate bulk deposits tend to move faster than retail deposits, which are typically stickier.

Previously, banks had to apply one uniform rate to all bulk deposits regardless of this difference. Now they may offer higher rates on deposits considered more volatile, whether placed domestically or by NRI and overseas depositors, allowing pricing to better reflect the actual cost and risk each deposit carries.

For corporate treasury teams, the practical effect is straightforward: instead of negotiating a rate that depended partly on relationship and leverage, they can now check a bank's website each morning and know, with certainty, what is on offer that day.

High net worth individuals placing large deposits gain a similar protection, under the new rules, they are entitled to whatever rate the bank is publicly offering for that amount on that date, whether they are a decades-long client or opened their account last week.

For the banking system more broadly, the LCR-linked flexibility is being framed by the RBI as a stability measure rather than a customer-facing perk, it lets banks price deposits closer to their true liquidity risk, which in theory strengthens how accurately they manage large, potentially volatile pools of money.

Retail depositors placing smaller sums are not the direct target of these specific provisions, since the Rs 3 crore threshold puts bulk deposits well outside typical retail territory. That said, the underlying principle, that a bank's published rate must match what it actually offers, is not exclusive to bulk deposits alone.

The RBI's notification attributes the changes to a review of the existing interest rate on deposits framework, carried out with transparency and disclosure as the stated objectives.

Taken together, the daily disclosure requirement and the ban on differential pricing shift bulk deposit rate-setting away from a private, relationship-driven negotiation and towards something closer to a public market rate, one that a depositor, a rival bank, or the RBI itself can verify simply by checking a website at 10:15 am.

Anyone placing fixed deposits of Rs 3 crore or more with a commercial bank would be well advised, from October onwards, to check the bank's website after 10 am before finalising a deposit, so as to see the rate on offer that day. That rate should be identical to whatever any other depositor placing the same amount receives, at any branch, on the same date. Where a bank quotes something different from what its website shows, the RBI's directions treat that as a breach, one that can be taken up with the RBI Ombudsman.