India’s central bank kept Tata Sons in the upper layer for 2026-27 while saying the designation is without prejudice to the outcome of its de-registration application.
The Reserve Bank of India has retained Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd in the upper layer of non-banking financial companies for the 2026-27 fiscal year, keeping the Tata Group holding company under tighter supervision while its application to surrender its core investment company registration remains under review. The RBI said Tata Sons would continue to be treated as a CIC and that its inclusion was "without prejudice to the outcome" of the de-registration request. The decision leaves the company’s ability to avoid a mandatory stock market listing tied to whether the RBI allows it to exit the CIC category. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the upper-layer list is now identified through a principle-based framework and indicated entities meeting the criteria would remain on it. Under India’s scale-based regulation system, upper-layer NBFCs face stricter oversight because of their size and systemic importance. Tata Sons, with standalone assets of 2.01 trillion rupees at the end of March 2026, remains above the RBI’s 1 trillion rupee threshold and is the only privately held company left from the original 2022 upper-layer list after others including Tata Capital Ltd and HDB Financial Services Ltd completed initial public offerings.