New Delhi: Reserve Bank on Monday issued a circular telling banks and lenders that they will have to provide key facts statement (KFS) about the loan agreement terms, including all-inclusive interest cost to borrowers for retail and MSME loans, from October 1.

“This is being done in order to enhance transparency and reduce information asymmetry on financial products being offered by different regulated entities, thereby empowering borrowers to make an informed financial decision,” the RBI said.

For the purpose of this circular, following terms have been defined by the RBI:

(a) Key Facts of a loan agreement between an RE/a group of REs and a borrower are legally significant and deterministic facts that satisfy basic information required to assist the borrower in taking an informed financial decision.

(b) Key Facts Statement (KFS) is a statement of key facts of a loan agreement, in simple and easier to understand language, provided to the borrower in a standardised format.

(c) Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the annual cost of credit to the borrower which includes interest rate and all other charges associated with the credit facility.

(d) Equated Periodic Instalment (EPI) is an equated or fixed amount of repayments, consisting of both the principal and interest components, to be paid by a borrower towards repayment of a loan at periodic intervals for a fixed number of such intervals; and which result in complete amortisation of the loan. EPIs at monthly intervals are called EMIs.

1. RBI said REs shall provide a KFS to all prospective borrowers to help them take an informed view before executing the loan contract, as per the standardised format given in the Annex A. The KFS shall be written in a language understood by such borrowers. Contents of KFS shall be explained to the borrower and an acknowledgement shall be obtained that he/she has understood the same.

2. Further, the KFS shall be provided with a unique proposal number and shall have a validity period of at least three working days for loans having tenor of seven days or more, and a validity period of one working day for loans having tenor of less than seven days.

3. The KFS shall also include a computation sheet of annual percentage rate (APR), and the amortisation schedule of the loan over the loan tenor. APR will include all charges which are levied by the RE. Illustrative examples of calculation of APR and disclosure of repayment schedule for a hypothetical loan are given in Annex B and C respectively.

4. Charges recovered from the borrowers by the REs on behalf of third-party service providers on actual basis, such as insurance charges, legal charges etc., shall also form part of the APR and shall be disclosed separately. In all cases wherever the RE is involved in recovering such charges, the receipts and related documents shall be provided to the borrower for each payment, within a reasonable time.

5. Any fees, charges, etc. which are not mentioned in the KFS, cannot be charged by the REs to the borrower at any stage during the term of the loan, without explicit consent of the borrower.

6. The KFS shall also be included as a summary box to be exhibited as part of the loan agreement.

7. Credit card receivables are exempted from the provisions contained under this circular.

8. REs shall put in place the necessary systems and processes to implement the above guidelines at the earliest. In any case, all new retail and MSME term loans sanctioned on or after October 1, 2024, including fresh loans to existing customers, shall comply with the above guidelines in letter and spirit without any exception.