The Reserve Bank of India has issued instructions for Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks other than Salary Earners’ Banks on the prudential treatment of contributions made to eligible funds with NABARD, NHB, SIDBI and MUDRA Ltd. (or any other RBI-specified entity) when a bank falls short of Priority Sector Lending (PSL) targets. Such contributions will be excluded from aggregate exposure calculations for large exposure limits, while being assigned a 100 percent risk weight for capital adequacy. Under the existing exposure framework for UCBs, prudential limits are set at 15 percent of tier-I capital for a single borrower or party and 25 percent for a group of connected borrowers or parties. RBI has now decided that PSL shortfall-related contributions to the specified eligible funds will not be included when computing exposure to those counterparties for the purpose of applying these limits. For capital adequacy purposes, the same contributions will be treated as “all other assets” and attract a 100 percent risk weight. The instructions apply with immediate effect.