Banks can shift excess bonds from HTM thrice/yr from 2015: RBI

The Reserve Bank today said banks can shift their excess bond holdings to trading portfolios from the held-to-maturity (HTM) basket thrice a year from 2015 to deepen government securities market.
Presently, banks are allowed to shift investments to/from HTM once a year and it is normally allowed at the beginning of the accounting year.
"In order to enable banks to shift their excess SLR securities from the HTM category to AFS/HFT...It has been decided to allow such shifting of the excess securities at the beginning of January, July and September 2015," RBI said in a notification.
This is in addition to the shifting permitted at the beginning of the accounting year (April 2015).

The transfers can be done in January, July and September next year and will be excluded from the 5 per cent cap prescribed for selling or transferring securities to and from HTM in a year, it said.
With an aim to develop the government securities market and enhance liquidity, RBI in its September 30 monetary policy review brought down the ceiling on SLR securities under the HTM category from 24 per cent of total deposits to 22 per cent in a phased manner.