1 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a circular on risk-based internal audit (RBIA) for non-banking finance companies (NBFC) and urban cooperative banks (UCB) so as to provide them with the essential requirements for a robust internal audit function, including sufficient authority, stature, independence, resources, and professional competence at par with scheduled commercial banks (SCBs).
The circular covers all deposit-taking and non-deposit-taking NBFCs, including core investment companies, with asset size of Rs5,000 crore and above, and all primary (urban) cooperative banks (UCBs) with asset size of Rs500 crore and above.
According to RBI, while NBFCs and primary UCBs have grown and become systemically important, the prevalence of different audit systems or approaches in such entities has created certain inconsistencies, risks, and gaps.