Mumbai- The Reserve Bank on Friday announced the culmination of a nearly six-month-long exercise to consolidate regulations, resulting in the repeal of 5,673 obsolete circulars.

Over 3,800 relevant circulars have been classified under broader themes and subsumed into 244 function-wise master directions, in which an entity must refer to the applicable MD for compliance with regulatory requirements.

In all, 9,446 circulars have been subsumed, repealed or withdrawn as part of the exercise.

Deputy Governor S C Murmu termed this a mammoth exercise in which officers of the 1935-incorporated central bank reviewed every circular written over the decades, assessed its relevance in the present day, and classified them into the necessary categories in the MDs.

The oldest among the obsolete circulars dates back to a 1944 regulation on advances against government securities, he said.

The“fundamental reorganisation” of the regulatory architecture will reduce the cost of compliance for regulated entities by making the rules more accessible, and the RBI hopes that its guidelines are now followed in letter and spirit, Murmu said.

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