Correction — 10 September 2026: Our earlier instruction to do nothing until January 2027 was misleading. Existing RBI rules already restricted recovery conduct. We have withdrawn the unverified later-instrument quotations and the implication that consumers had to wait to complain.
Existing protection
RBI’s 12 August 2022 circular on recovery agents prohibited intimidation, harassment, threatening or anonymous calls and recovery calls before 8 am or after 7 pm. It also addressed intrusion into the privacy of relatives, referees and friends. The lender remains responsible for its outsourced recovery activity.
Later claims need a separate check
The original article cited August 2026 amendments and additional requirements about visits, certification, published agency lists and retained recordings. We have not independently confirmed all those provisions against retrievable final RBI text. The original references below preserve the audit trail; they should not be treated as verified support for the withdrawn wording.
What to do now
Document the conduct and contact the lender’s grievance channel. You can question improper recovery practices while separately addressing repayment of the debt. For escalation, check the current requirements on RBI’s Complaint Management System.