What changed
On 6 August 2026 the Reserve Bank issued nine sets of Amendment Directions on the conduct of recovery — covering commercial banks, small finance banks, local area banks, regional rural banks, urban and rural co-operative banks, all-India financial institutions, NBFCs and housing finance companies. They come into effect on 1 January 2027.
For a credit-card holder in collections, the binding rules are:
- Contact only between 08:00 and 19:00. "An employee / recovery agent shall contact / visit the borrower / guarantor only between 08:00 hours and 19:00 hours." Outside that window is permitted only where you have expressly asked for it.
- A day's warning before anyone turns up. The lender "shall intimate the details of the recovery agency to the borrower / guarantor at least one day prior to the first visit".
- Certified agents only. Agents must hold the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance debt-recovery certificate; agents already engaged but uncertified get one year from the effective date to obtain it.
- A published agency list, updated "within seven calendar days of any modification".
- Call recordings kept six months from the date of the call, or until disposal where a matter is sub judice.
- Harassment defined and prohibited, including "intimidating or harassing the borrower / guarantor and / or his / her relatives, referees, friends, or co-workers" and acts "intended to humiliate them publicly or intruding upon their privacy".
Who is affected
Every card in our database, because this governs the lender's conduct rather than any product's terms. No fee, rate, cap or benefit changes on any card.
One widely quoted part of this package does not apply to credit cards. The provisions on remotely disabling a phone's functions — the 30-days-past-due floor, the one-hour reversal, and the ₹250-per-hour compensation for wrongful lockouts — govern loans taken to finance that specific device. A credit card is not a device loan, so none of it reaches your card.
What to do
Nothing, until January — this is a floor under conduct, not a change to what you owe or earn. But know the floor exists before you need it. From 1 January 2027 a call at 21:00, an unannounced doorstep visit, or an agent your bank has not listed publicly is a breach you can cite: first to the bank's grievance officer, then to the RBI Ombudsman. Our guide to the minimum-due trap covers the cheaper place to solve this — before collections.
Sources
- RBI — press release, 6 August 2026 — names all nine Amendment Directions and the 1 January 2027 effective date, verified 30 August 2026
- RBI — Commercial Banks (Responsible Business Conduct) Fourth Amendment Directions, 2026 — RBI/2026-27/223, verified 30 August 2026
- RBI — NBFC (Responsible Business Conduct) Third Amendment Directions, 2026 — RBI/2026-27/230, verified 30 August 2026