Reserve Bank of India Withdraws Circulars and Guidelines on Currency Management After Consolidation into Master Directions

Key facts

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under its ongoing initiative to rationalise the regulatory framework, reviewed instructions on currency management related matters.
• The review involved consolidation of extant circulars and guidelines into function-wise Master Directions and subject-specific instructions.
• The instructions listed in the Annex, comprising those consolidated into Master Directions as well as those that became obsolete or redundant, stand withdrawn.
• The circular dated October 1, 2026 (RBI/2026-27/274) was addressed to the Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of all banks and issued by Chief General Manager-in-Charge Sanjeev Prakash.
• Withdrawn circulars span decades and cover subjects such as exchange of soiled and mutilated notes, detection and impounding of counterfeit notes, currency chest operations, the Clean Note Policy, and the 2016 withdrawal of legal tender character of ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes.