Reserve Bank of India Classifies Tata Sons as Upper Layer NBFC

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday classified Tata Sons as an Upper Layer Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).

Under revised norms effective from June, NBFCs with assets exceeding Rs 1 trillion are classified in the upper layer, triggering tighter regulatory oversight and a requirement to list within three years. Tata Sons, with standalone assets of over Rs 2 trillion as of March 2026, falls within this category.

The upper layer consists of large, systemically important NBFCs that face enhanced regulatory and supervisory scrutiny because of their scale, interconnectedness and significance to the financial system.

Tata Sons is identified as a Core Investment Company (CIC) under the NBFC category. Whether the company has to go public now depends upon if the central bank will accept its application to surrender its CIC registration. The application is still under consideration, the RBI said in a press release.

The RBI said Tata Sons' inclusion in the list would not affect its pending application to give up its NBFC registration.

A core investment company is an NBFC whose principal business is investing in group companies, with regulations requiring at least 90% of its net assets to be held in equity shares, preference shares, bonds, debentures, debt or loans of such firms.

The other large NBFCs in the list include Bajaj Finance Limited, Shriram Finance and Tata Capital.

NBFCs classified in the Upper Layer remain subject to enhanced regulatory requirements for at least five years and are required to list their shares on a stock exchange within three years of identification.