RBI Raises Daily CRR Maintenance Requirement to 99%: What Changes and When

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on 9 October 2026 that scheduled banks must maintain at least 99% of the prescribed Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) every day, up from 90%. The change applies from the reporting fortnight beginning 16 October 2026. The overall CRR is unchanged at 3%. As of 10 October 2026, the announcement is complete but the new daily requirement has not yet taken effect.

RBI daily CRR maintenance change: key facts

• What changed: the daily minimum balance, as a share of the prescribed CRR, rises from 90% to 99%.
• What did not change: the prescribed CRR remains 3% of Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL).
• Who it applies to: scheduled banks, according to the source.
• Context: banking-system surplus liquidity was about ₹3.88 lakh crore as of 8 October 2026.
• Expected effect: the source says the revised requirement is expected to impound an additional ₹1 lakh crore from the banking system. This is an expectation, not a confirmed outcome.

Timeline: completed and upcoming events as of 10 October 2026

The source article is dated 10 October 2026, one day after the RBI announcement. The article date is not the same as the event date.

How the CRR and its daily maintenance work

What the CRR is

The CRR is the share of a bank's NDTL that it must keep as a cash balance with the RBI. The RBI prescribes it under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and scheduled commercial banks must comply.

What the 90% to 99% change means

Banks must meet the full prescribed CRR on average over a reporting fortnight. Until now, they could fall as low as 90% of it on any single day, provided the fortnightly average met the requirement. From 16 October 2026 the daily floor is 99%, so banks have much less room for day-to-day shortfalls.

As an illustration, 90% of a 3% CRR is 2.7% of NDTL, while 99% is 2.97% of NDTL. The headline CRR rate does not change, but the cash that must be held on each day does.

Why it matters: liquidity management

The RBI manages banking-system liquidity by absorbing or injecting funds. The source places the CRR change alongside two other steps:

• a scheduled OMO sale of government securities worth ₹25,000 crore on 13 October 2026, which absorbs liquidity; and
• the 7 October 2026 repo rate increase of 25 basis points (0.25 percentage points) to 5.50%.

The source links the surplus liquidity partly to increased dollar deposits mobilised under the RBI's FCNR-B scheme, which ended on 31 August 2026. FCNR-B accounts let eligible non-resident Indians hold term deposits in permitted foreign currencies. The RBI's own stated rationale for the CRR change has not been verified here.

Exam-relevant points

These points are useful for economy and banking preparation. They do not predict any question.

• CRR is held as cash balances with the RBI, not as securities.
• The prescribed CRR remains 3%; only the daily maintenance floor moves, from 90% to 99%.
• An OMO is the RBI's purchase or sale of government securities, and a sale absorbs liquidity.
• The policy repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to eligible banks against securities.
• One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Evidence limits

This note rests on one secondary source, a GKToday article. An RBI notification link was supplied, but it only returned a human-verification page, so its contents could not be read. The RBI's circular text, its stated rationale and its exact wording on which banks are covered have therefore not been independently checked. The ₹1 lakh crore figure is an expected effect, and the actual outcomes of the 13 October OMO and the 16 October change are not yet known.

FAQ

Has the CRR itself been raised to 99%?

No. The prescribed CRR stays at 3%. What rises to 99% is the minimum share of that requirement banks must maintain every day, up from 90%.

When does the new daily requirement start?

It applies from the reporting fortnight beginning 16 October 2026. As of 10 October 2026 it is scheduled, not in effect.

Did the RBI also change the repo rate?

According to the source, the RBI raised the policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% on 7 October 2026, two days before the CRR announcement.