Published on Jan 20, 2025Updated on Oct 15, 2026
Traditionally, borrowers and lenders have challenges associated with delays in updating credit scores. Changes often took 30 to 45 days to reflect in credit reports, leaving borrowers frustrated when timely payments or improvements in their credit scores went unacknowledged. Lenders, too, were hindered by outdated data, potentially impacting their decisions on loans and borrower creditworthiness.
The new rule from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), effective January 1 2025, mandates all lenders to update credit bureau records every 15 days. This move has the potential to enhance credit scoring accuracy, improve credit risk assessment, and bring greater transparency to the credit system.
This article explains how RBI’s credit reporting guidelines will impact borrowers and lenders alike.
Until now, repaying a significant portion of your loan or making timely credit card payments often meant waiting over a month for your credit score to reflect these actions. Under the previous system, lenders typically submitted data to credit bureaus every 30 to 45 days. This caused delays in recognising financial improvements. For instance, if you cleared a significant portion of your debt on 5 January, the update might not appear until mid-February. These delays led to frustration for borrowers and inefficiencies for lenders, who received outdated information.
The Reserve Bank of India has introduced a major update to credit reporting regulations, effective January 1, 2025. Under this new rule, lenders must update credit bureau records every 15 days instead of the typically once-a-month cycle.
The new rule will create significant changes for both borrowers and lenders. Here’s how it affects each group:
Receiving borrower data more frequently from lenders will allow credit bureaus to provide more accurate and up-to-date credit scores and reports, improving the reliability of their services.
However, they may face operational challenges initially, such as upgrading systems to handle the increased data volume and ensuring timely processing of the more frequent updates.
Along with ensuring timely credit score updates, the new RBI rule can address the following challenges in the credit system:
The RBI’s 15-day credit reporting rule marks a significant shift in India’s credit system, offering benefits for both borrowers and lenders through faster credit updates. Borrowers with strong repayment habits could experience quicker personal loan approvals, while lenders gain the opportunity to improve their risk assessment and make more informed lending decisions.
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The 15-day credit reporting rule will lead to quicker credit score updates. This can potentially speed up your personal loan approval process if your credit score improves and you meet the lender’s eligibility criteria.
The 15-day reporting cycle will mean that your credit score updates will be reflected faster, as opposed to the previous 30-45 days.
If your credit score is not updated in a timely manner, you may want to contact the lender or credit bureau for correction, as this could impact loan decisions and credit assessments.
The rule itself doesn’t change eligibility criteria or credit score thresholds set by lenders. However, timely reporting can help reflect your credit score improvements faster, enhancing future loan prospects.
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