Several changes impacting your finances are scheduled to take effect starting August 1, 2025, influencing various aspects of how you manage your money. These changes span digital payments via UPI, trading hours for market repo and TREP operations, and revised banking rules. Here's a breakdown of what you need to know to stay on top of these evolving regulations.

UPI Transaction Rules

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is implementing several changes to UPI to improve the stability and efficiency of the platform, especially during peak hours. These changes aim to manage traffic and enhance the overall user experience.

• Balance Check Limit: Users will now be limited to 50 balance checks per day, per UPI app. If you use multiple UPI apps, each will have its own limit. This measure is intended to reduce the load on the system caused by frequent balance inquiries.
• Auto-Pay Transactions: Auto-pay transactions, such as SIPs and OTT subscriptions, will only be processed during non-peak hours. Peak hours are defined as 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM. If your payment is scheduled during peak hours, it will be processed either before or after these times.
• Transaction Status Checks: Users are limited to checking the status of a failed transaction three times, with a mandatory 90-second gap between retries. This aims to reduce server overload and improve transaction processing speeds.
• Linked Account Checks: There's a limit of 25 times per day for viewing the list of linked bank accounts. This is intended to reduce background requests that can slow down the system.
• Beneficiary Name Display: The recipient's registered bank name will be visible before confirming a payment. This is a significant anti-fraud measure that helps avoid accidental payments to the wrong recipient.
• Automatic Balance Updates: Banks will now automatically send balance updates with every transaction, eliminating the need for manual balance checks.

Extension of Trading Hours for Market Repo and TREP Operations

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced an extension of trading hours for market repo and Tri-Party Repo (TREP) operations, effective August 1, 2025. The new trading hours will be from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, an extension of one hour from the previous 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM timeframe. This change aims to enhance liquidity and flexibility in the short-term money markets. However, trading hours for government securities, foreign exchange, and interest rate derivatives will remain unchanged.

Changes in Banking Rules

The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, brings several changes affecting how banks operate, especially concerning capital requirements, audits, and unclaimed funds.

• Higher Minimum Capital for Banks: Banks in India must now maintain ₹2 crore as minimum capital, a significant increase from the previous ₹5 lakh. This is expected to improve the financial strength of banks, particularly smaller cooperative banks.
• Unclaimed Funds to IEPF: If you have unclaimed dividends, matured fixed deposits, or unredeemed shares lying idle in your Indian bank account for seven years, the money will be transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), a central government fund. While you can still claim your money, it will be through a separate process from the IEPF, not directly from the bank.
• Audit Rules: Auditors of SBI and other public sector banks will now be appointed under the same rules as private companies, ensuring better oversight and transparency.

Other potential changes The RBI MPC meeting was held from August 4-6, 2025, to discuss and announce changes to the repo rate, which may impact lending and deposit rates.