Banks can shift excess bonds from held-to-maturity 3 more times in 2015 - RBI

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India has allowed banks to shift their excess bond holdings to trading portfolios from the held-to-maturity (HTM) basket three more times in 2015 to adhere to its roadmap on HTM cut.

Usually banks are allowed to transfer bonds to and from HTM to available-for-sale and held-for-trading once a year in April.

The transfers can be done in January, July and September next year and will be excluded from the 5 percent cap prescribed for selling or transferring securities to and from HTM in a year, the RBI said.

At the monetary policy review on Sept. 30, the RBI had prescribed the roadmap for lowering HTM gradually, starting from January till September.

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury and Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)