MUMBAI, October 18 — The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued comprehensive binding Master Directions on Cyber Resilience and IT Governance on Sunday for all Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) nationwide under the Banking Regulation Act 1949.
Categorizing UCBs into a four-tiered regulatory hierarchy based on deposit sizes, the directive mandates operationalizing 24/7 Security Operations Centres (SOCs), continuous endpoint detection, automated multi-site disaster recovery backups, and real-time fraud monitoring across Core Banking Systems (CBS). Banks are legally required to report significant cyber intrusions or anomalous service disruptions to RBI’s Cyber Security Operation Centre (CSOC) within an uncompromised 2-to-6-hour window.
The central bank emphasized that safeguarding depositor savings in grassroots cooperative lenders is critical to systemic financial stability, warning that institutions failing to meet baseline IT controls will face restrictions on opening fresh branches and rolling out new digital banking channels.
Statutory changes introduced under the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act 2020 bringing UCBs under RBI oversight, deposit insurance safeguards under DICGC (covering up to ₹5 lakh per depositor), recommendations of the N.S. Vishwanathan Committee on UCB reforms, and cyber-risk management are key study areas for RBI Grade B and civil service exams.