The Reserve Bank of India has rejected a request from Tata Sons to voluntarily surrender its licence as a registered non-banking core investment company, more than two and a half years after the application was filed in March 2024. Tata Sons had argued it met criteria to be treated as an unregistered core investment company because it carried no exposure to public deposits or public debt, having cleared about Rs 22,000 crore in public debt to become net debt-free by March 2023.
However, the regulatory framework was overhauled to shift the key threshold for upper-layer NBFC classification from public debt exposure to assets under management, with the central bank setting that bar at roughly Rs 1 trillion. Tata Sons’ assets under management stood at about Rs 1.75 trillion on a standalone basis and closer to Rs 7 trillion on a consolidated basis as of March 2026, which is above the threshold.
In its formal response, the central bank told Tata Sons that the surrender request could not be accepted and directed the company to immediately comply with all norms for upper-layer NBFCs. The decision is viewed as a setback for Tata Trusts leadership, as it subjects Tata Sons to tighter scrutiny and potentially pushes the company toward a public listing sought by its largest external shareholder. The Tata Group has not yet issued a detailed public response.