RBI‘s Final Guidelines for Sales of Financial Products and Services by Regulated Entities – Initial Thoughts

Research evidence excerpt

RBI‘s Final Guidelines for Sales of Financial Products and Services by Regulated Entities – Initial Thoughts

Update

June 15, 2026 07:24 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley India Company Private Limited+MIndia Financials | Asia Pacific Subramanian Iyer

Equity Analyst

RBI's Final Guidelines for Sales Subramanian.Iyer@morganstanley.comKushan Parikh, CFA +91 22 6118-2234

Kushan.Parikh@morganstanley.com +91 22 6118-1082

of Financial Products and Lavish Porwal

Research Associate

Lavish.Porwal@morganstanley.com +91 22 6118-1197

Services by Regulated Entities – Meera Midha

Meera.Midha@morganstanley.com +91 22 6118-1232

Initial Thoughts Sakshi V Chaplot

RBI issued amendments to the "Advertising, Marketing and Sale of Financial Sakshi.Chaplot@morganstanley.com +91 22 6118-2228

Products and Services by Regulated Entities" (link). It also issued final guidelines on

"Responsible Business Conduct" and "Undertaking of Financial Services (which is the

regulatory framework for Agency Business and Referral Services)".

On a preliminary read, there are no meaningful changes proposed vs. the draft,

India Financials

except that these regulations will become applicable from January 1, 2027 vs. July 1, Asia Pacific

2026 as proposed in the draft. Industry View Attractive

The key proposals in the draft that have continued, and could require operational

changes at lenders, are the ones around compulsory bundling of third-party

products with a regulated entity's products.

We await potential regulations around insurance commissions from IRDAI. Also, as

mentioned in previous research, there has been no mention by RBI about mandatory

open architecture in bancassurance in these regulations. (See: SBI Life: Thoughts on

investor concerns around adverse regulatory risk.)