Sanjay Malhotra, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) speaks during the FIBAC banking conference in Mumbai, India August 25, 2025. REUTERS
MUMBAI, Feb 6 (Reuters) – India’s central bank on Friday announced measures to boost credit to small businesses and the real estate sector to improve access to formal financing and strengthen last-mile lending, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in his policy address.
The Reserve Bank of India proposed doubling the limit on collateral-free loans for small enterprises to 2 million rupees from 1 million rupees. The revised norms will apply to loans sanctioned or renewed from April 1, 2026.
It also said banks would be allowed to lend to real estate investment trusts, subject to prudential safeguards, extending a facility already available to infrastructure investment trusts.
“Upon review and considering the presence of strong regulatory and governance framework for listed REITs, it is proposed to permit commercial banks to extend finance to REITs, subject to appropriate prudential safeguards,” the Governor RBI said in his statement.
“The existing guidelines in respect of lending to InvITs are also being harmonised for parity with prudential safeguards proposed for lending to REITs,” he added.
Reporting by Gopika Gopakumar; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee
