The bank, which reported the swindle on Sunday, plunged 16.2% on the BSE to end at Rs 70 on Monday. “We are watching the developments. There is no systemic kind of issue,” Malhotra said at a joint press conference with FM Nirmala Sitharaman after the RBI’s Central Board meeting on Monday.
IDFC First Bank said Sunday that employees at Chandigarh branch were involved in the fraud. Malhotra said RBI will release fresh retail inflation estimates before the April policy review, when asked about the impact of the Consumer Price Index revamp and if it warranted a change in the target of 4% with a tolerance band of two percentage points on either side of that.
Liquidity Measures
However, the change in the CPI by itself wouldn’t alter the central bank’s view on the appropriate inflation target. He said the RBI has submitted its recommendations on the inflation-targeting framework to the government, which is expected to notify the new one soon. “While the methodological changes are material in terms of coverage, representativeness and volatility, they are not substantial enough by themselves to necessitate a change in the inflation target,” he said.
The revised index will better reflect Indian households’ consumption patterns and help reduce volatility, he said. The revamped CPI released earlier this month lowered the share of food items in the inflation basket, introduced new consumption items, phased out outdated ones and changed the base year. As per the new 2024 series, India’s CPI inflation was reported at 2.75% in January 2026. Malhotra said the RBI will take all necessary measures to provide durable liquidity across market segments. He clarified that the RBI’s bilateral government bond switches with the Centre are tools for debt management rather than liquidity management. Two switch operations totalling Rs 1.13 lakh crore were conducted on February 12.
“Some of the RBI holdings were maturing (in FY27), which is why we have done a switch involving RBI holdings. We also followed it up with a switch with the market,” he said. “They are all part of our operating policy toolkit. They do not reflect any change in our operational strategy.” A switch operation involves replacing a security due in the near term with longer-maturity paper, thereby postponing the government’s repayment obligations.CBDC
Malhotra said the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wasn’t a substitute for cash or existing fast payment systems. The RBI will introduce it only after evaluating the full range of features it offers. The RBI is also working on introducing an offline mode for the digital currency. “The CBDC (will) augment the payment systems that we have,” he said. “Unless and until we have the whole bouquet of features available on this CBDC, it would be premature to implement it on a large scale.”
However, he noted that the CBDC offers advanced features that other forms of payment and currency do not. The RBI launched the retail CBDC pilot in 2022.