The rate has been cut compared with the 7.98 percent set for the September quarter. “The Reserve Bank of India has today communicated that applicable average base rate to be charged by Non-Banking Financial Company – Micro Finance Institutions (NBFC – MFIs) to their borrowers for the quarter beginning October 1, 2021, will be 7.95 percent,” the RBI said in a release.

On the last working day of every quarter, the RBI advises the average of the base rates of the five largest commercial banks for the purpose of arriving at the interest rates to be charged by NBFC – MFIs their borrowers in the ensuring quarter.

In February, 2014, the RBI said that the interest rates charged by an NBFC-MFI to its borrowers will be the lower of the cost of funds plus margin or the average base rate of the five largest commercial banks by assets multiplied by 2.75.

The linking, which will be operationalized by July 2022, will enable users to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without the need to onboard onto the other payment system, the RBI said.

“The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, and closely aligns with the G20’s financial priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments,” the RBI said.

PayNow enables peer-to-peer funds transfer service and is available to retail customers through participating banks and non-bank financial institutions (NFIs) in Singapore.

It allows users to send and receive funds from a bank or an e-wallet account by using just a mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA (virtual payment address), the RBI said.

The UPI-PayNow tie-up upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited and Network for Electronic Transfer to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes between India and Singapore and, RBI said.

It will further anchor trade, travel, and remittance flow between the two countries.

The initiative is also in line with its vision of reviewing corridors and charges for inbound cross-border remittances outlined in the Payment Systems Vision Document, the RBI said.

The South Asian market’s central bank said the new restrictions will go into effect on July 22. “Notwithstanding the lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data,” RBI said in a statement Wednesday.

The new order won’t impact existing customers of Mastercard, which is one of the top three card issuers in India, RBI said. “Mastercard shall advise all card issuing banks to conform to these directions,” it said.

This isn’t the first time India’s central bank has penalized any firm for noncompliance with local data-storage rules, which was unveiled in 2018 and mandated compliance within six months. The rules require payments firms to store all Indian transaction data within servers in the country.

In April, RBI restricted American Express and Diners Club from adding new customers, citing violations of the same rules.

Visa, Mastercard, and several other firms, as well as the U.S government, have previously requested New Delhi to reconsider its rules, which they have argued is designed to allow the regulator “unfettered supervisory access.”

Visa, Mastercard and American Express had also lobbied to either significantly change the rules or completely discard it.