RBI’s New Rule! Banks Must File Monthly Internet & Mobile Banking Returns

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued an official notification via its Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (reference number RBI/2025-26/77, CO.DPSS.ODD.No.S604/06-08-024/2025-2026), dated September 5, 2025, addressing all Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs, including Regional Rural Banks), Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs), State Cooperative Banks (StCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs), Payment Banks, and Small Finance Banks. The notification is titled, “Returns – Department of Payment and Settlement Systems – Submission in CIMS”.

The Central Bank of India has launched its new next-generation data warehouse named the Centralised Information Management System (CIMS). It is a central online platform where banks and other regulated financial institutions will submit various reports/returns regularly, instead of sending them separately in older ways.

RBI has decided that two specific returns (reports) will now have to be submitted through the new system, i.e., CIMS, from the reporting period of August 2025 onwards. These two are:

• Internet Banking Return (Return Code: R065) – to be submitted monthly.
• Mobile Banking Return (Return Code: R102) – to be submitted monthly.

So, according to the reporting guidelines, from August 2025, the aforementioned banks and other institutions must file these two reports every month via the CIMS portal. The portal can be accessed at https://cims.rbi.org.in/#/login.

The Central Bank has already created Admin Users for each reporting entity (i.e., each bank or institution mentioned above).

These Admin Users now have the responsibility to create login IDs and credentials for the staff members who will actually submit the returns on the CIMS portal.

The deadline remains the same as before: returns for every month must be submitted by the 7th of the subsequent month. For instance, the report for August 2025 must be filed before September 7, 2025.

This practice will continue for every succeeding month. These guidelines have been issued under Section 12, read with Section 19 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, and nonadherence to these guidelines can attract massive penalties and other legal consequences.