Standing Deposit Facility rate (SDF)
SDF = Standing Deposit Facility- How often
- At policy meetingsMoves with the repo rate at MPC meetings
- Next release
- Fri 4 DecIn 22 days · 10:00 AM
Raised by 25 bp, effective 7 October 2026.
Events on this chart
Source: RBI MPC, released 7 Oct 2026 · Chart: Clarity UPSC
- Previous
- 5.00%5 Dec 2025
- Highest
- 6.25%8 Feb 2023
- Lowest
- 3.75%8 Apr 2022
12 readings since 8 Apr 2022.
Story
What the Reserve Bank of India pays banks for surplus money parked overnight. It is the floor of the rate corridor.
What is happening now As of 7 Oct 2026
The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate rose to 5.25% on 7 October 2026. The Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 0.25 percentage point to 5.50% because inflation and its outlook had worsened, and the SDF rate moved with it to stay 0.25 percentage point below. It is back at its level of a year earlier; it was 5.00% from December 2025 until this rise.
Banks have had far more money than they need. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) put the surplus at an average of ₹5.9 lakh crore a day between its August and October 2026 meetings, after its measures to attract capital inflows. The RBI absorbed this money through the SDF and through 55 variable rate reverse repo auctions. The weighted average call rate, the average rate at which banks lend to each other overnight, traded about 0.14 percentage point below the repo rate, in the lower half of the corridor. The RBI said it will use its liquidity tools to bring that rate in line with the repo rate.
Why it matters
The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate is the floor for overnight interest rates. A bank with spare money can always deposit it with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at this rate, so it has little reason to lend to another bank for less. When banks have plenty of money, overnight market rates fall towards the SDF rate.
The SDF also lets the RBI absorb surplus money without collateral. Before 2022 the RBI had to give banks government securities when it took their money, so the securities it held limited how much it could absorb. The SDF rate moves with every repo rate decision, so it carries policy changes into the money market.
What it is
The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) lets banks deposit surplus money with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) without the RBI giving securities in return. The SDF rate sits 0.25 percentage point below the repo rate.
The policy rates form a corridor. A bank with spare money will not lend it to another bank for much less than it can earn from the RBI, so the SDF rate is the floor. Since April 2022 the SDF has replaced the fixed reverse repo as that floor.
Read this number
- The publisher
- The Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI sets the repo rate. Three members come from the RBI, including the Governor, and three are appointed by the central government.
- Since
- 8 April 2022
- Position
- Repo rate − 0.25 point
Terms on this page (4)
- CRR
- Cash Reserve Ratio
- MSF
- Marginal Standing Facility
- RBI
- Reserve Bank of India
- SLR
- Statutory Liquidity Ratio
History
- 2018An amendment to Section 17 of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act allows the RBI to absorb money from banks without giving collateral.
- 8 Apr 2022The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) opens at 3.75%, 0.25 percentage point below the repo rate, and replaces the fixed-rate reverse repo as the floor of the corridor. Like the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF), it is available on all days of the year.
- 8 Feb 2023After the repo rate rises from 4.00% to 6.50%, the SDF stands at 6.25%.
Readings
| Period | Value | Status | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct 2026 | 5.25% | Final | 7 Oct 2026 |
| 5 Dec 2025 | 5.00% | Final | 5 Dec 2025 |
| 6 Jun 2025 | 5.25% | Final | 6 Jun 2025 |
| 9 Apr 2025 | 5.75% | Final | 9 Apr 2025 |
| 7 Feb 2025 | 6.00% | Final | 7 Feb 2025 |
| 8 Feb 2023 | 6.25% | Final | 8 Feb 2023 |
| 7 Dec 2022 | 6.00% | Final | 7 Dec 2022 |
| 30 Sep 2022 | 5.65% | Final | 30 Sep 2022 |
| 5 Aug 2022 | 5.15% | Final | 5 Aug 2022 |
| 8 Jun 2022 | 4.65% | Final | 8 Jun 2022 |
| 4 May 2022 | 4.15% | Final | 4 May 2022 |
| 8 Apr 2022 | 3.75% | Final | 8 Apr 2022 |
For UPSC
The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) has been the floor of the corridor, 0.25 percentage point below the repo rate, since 8 April 2022. It rests on Section 17 of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act as amended in 2018, needs no collateral, and its balances count towards the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) but not the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR). The fixed-rate reverse repo continues only at the RBI's discretion.