Reserve Bank revises norms on general credit card scheme

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday revised its guidelines on the general purpose credit card scheme to ensure greater flow of entrepreneurial credit to individuals, particularly to borrowers of small means. "Any other credit card (such as Artisan Credit Card, Laghu Udyami Card, Swarojgar Credit Card, and Weaver's Credit Card, etc) in existence and catering to the non-farm entrepreneurial credit needs of individuals should be included for reporting of credit extended through general credit cards (GCC), under the Financial Inclusion Plans (FIP). As the GCC is intended to cover all entrepreneurial credit, consumption credit extended to individuals should not be reported under GCC," RBI said in a notification to banks. It clarified the issuance of GCC would not prevent banks from issuing any other credit card to their customers for their consumption needs. Consumption credit provided by banks is to be reported separately under the head of overdraft or consumption credit in the FIP reporting format prescribed by RBI. "These guidelines will supersede the GCC guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India in December 2005 and May 2008," the central bank said.