The Reserve Bank of India, through A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 02 dated April 1, 2026, has revised the process for handling references related to Overseas Investment submitted by persons resident in India. Earlier, such references were processed centrally at the RBI’s Foreign Exchange Department, Central Office. Under the new framework, these references will be processed at seven designated Regional Offices of the RBI, based on the Unique Identification Number (UIN) prefix of the foreign entity. Authorised Dealer Category I Banks are now required to submit references through the PRAVAAH portal to the respective Regional Office as per the prescribed mapping. Necessary amendments are being made to the Master Direction on Overseas Investment. The circular, issued under FEMA provisions, aims to decentralise processing, improve efficiency, and streamline handling of overseas investment references while ensuring better regional distribution of workload.
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
RBI/2026-27/03
A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 02 | Dated: April 01, 2026
All Authorised Dealer Category I Banks
Madam / Sir,
Overseas Investment – Submission of References to the Reserve Bank
As you are aware, references pertaining to Overseas Investment received from Persons Resident in India through AD banks are currently processed centrally at Foreign Exchange Department, Central Office of the Reserve Bank. It has now been decided that such references shall be processed at seven Regional Offices of the Reserve Bank as specified in the following paragraph, with effect from April 01, 2026.
2. AD banks, which were hitherto forwarding such references to the Central Office of the Reserve Bank, are now advised to submit the same to the designated Regional Offices through PRAVAAH portal of the Reserve Bank as per the UIN (Unique Identification Number of the foreign entity) mapping given below:
| Sr. No |
UIN with prefix | Regional Office of RBI to which the reference is to be sent to |
| 1. | AH | Ahmedabad |
| 2. | BG | Bengaluru |
| 3. | BL or BY or PJ | Mumbai |
| 4. | BN or CA or GA or GH | Kolkata |
| 5. | CG or JM or JR or KA or ND or PT or | New Delhi |
| 6. | HY | Hyderabad |
| 7. | KO or MA | Chennai |
3. Necessary amendments are being carried out in the Master Direction – Overseas Investment dated July 24, 2024.
4. AD banks may bring the contents of the circular to the notice of their customers/ constituents concerned.
5. The directions contained in this circular have been issued under sections 10(4), 11(1) and 11(2) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999) and are without prejudice to permissions / approvals, if any, required under any other law.
Yours faithfully,
(N Senthil Kumar)
Chief General Manager
