The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected Tata Sons’ request to voluntarily surrender its registration as a non-banking financial company (NBFC).
The RBI communicated its decision to Tata Sons in an e-mail, a person aware of the matter told Mint.
The means Tata Sons will now have to comply with RBI rules applicable to upper-layer NBFCs, including the requirement to list its shares on stock exchanges, sources said.
Why was the request rejected?
In 2024, Tata Sons applied to the RBI to surrender its Core Investment Company (CIC) registration, after prepaying ₹21,813 crore of debt and turning net cash positive in FY24.
But the central bank kept Tata Sons, a company, in its upper-layer NBFC framework. In August 2026, it retained Tata Sons in its updated list of 17 NBFCs in the Upper Layer, clarifying, ‘its inclusion was without prejudice to the outcome of the deregistration application, which was still under examination.’
Tata Sons is likely to remain under the RBI’s upper-layer NBFC framework even after the regulator’s revised classification rules, as its standalone assets are well above the ₹1 lakh crore threshold.
Tata Sons was first classified as an upper-layer NBFC by the RBI in September 2022, under rules that required such entities to list within three years. That puts Tata Sons’ original listing deadline in September 2025. The company remained unlisted while its deregistration application was pending.
Under the revised framework, NBFCs with assets of ₹1 lakh crore or more are brought into focus for upper-layer classification. Tata Sons’ asset size means it would continue to fall within the framework.
A Tata Sons listing would give retail investors indirect exposure to some of the Tata Group’s key unlisted businesses, including Air India, Tata Electronics, Tata Digital and Tata Advanced Systems. It could also provide a market-based valuation for these assets and potentially unlock value for shareholders.