• The relaxation follows feedback received from the industry and is aimed at facilitating investment in the Infrastructure sector.

• What? Risk weights relaxed for NBFC in infrastructure financing
• Who released it? RBI
• Effective: April 1,2026
• Grace Period: March 31, 2027
• Repayment threshold: 75% RW – 2% debt repaid; 50% RW – 5% debt repaid
• High Quality Infrastructure: Expanded to include more projects as high quality

Key Highlights

Issue Addressed: Initially, the RBI had proposed a stricter framework for risk weights on infrastructure loans provided by NBFCs.

• A higher risk weight necessitates a larger capital buffer, potentially limiting lending capacity.
• Following industry consultations, the RBI has now relaxed these proposed norms.

Effective From: The Amendment Directions shall be applicable from April 1, 2026, or from an earlier date when these Directions are adopted by a NBFC in entirety.

Grace Period: In case of exposures attracting a lower risk weight under the extant guidelines but will be subject to higher risk weights under these Directions, NBFCs can continue to maintain the extant risk weights till the next review / renewal or March 31, 2027, whichever is earlier.

Repayment threshold: Under the revised guidelines, the NBFC exposures will now become eligible for 75% risk weight once 2% of the originally sanctioned project debt has been repaid.

• This is significantly lower than the 5% repayment threshold proposed in the draft norms.
• Similarly, the 50% risk weight will be applied once 5% of the project debt is repaid, compared with the earlier 10% threshold