Top personal finance changes from October 1: NPS overhaul, faster cheque clearance and more

From October, many important financial and regulatory changes are coming into effect with a key impact on our daily lives. From National Pension System (NPS) changes, IRCTC’s new online booking rules to changes in banking charges, the fourth quarter of 2025 is bringing many important developments.

Let’s look at what we should expect from October:

NPS with 100% equity option

The PFRDA has also enabled non-government subscribers of the National Pension System (NPS) to choose multiple investment schemes under one PAN, starting from October 1. They will also be able to opt for a high-risk scheme with up to 100% allocation to equity.

IRCTC’s Aadhaar-based booking

Earlier this month, IRCTC announced that users will not be able to book tickets reserved for general passengers on the IRCTC website (irctc.co.in) and app in the first 15 minutes of the reservation window if they are not Aadhaar-authenticated.

This is being done to ensure that genuine users can book tickets and the benefits of the ticket reservation system aren’t misused by anyone.

Banking rules

The HDFC Bank has informed its Imperia programme customers that those who joined on or before June 30, 2025, must meet the updated Total Relationship Value (TRV) criteria to continue enjoying their premium banking privileges.

At a ‘Group’ level, the Imperia programme eligibility is maintenance of a Total Relationship Value (TRV) of ₹1 crore or more.

Customers can continue enjoying Imperia privileges by maintaining at least ₹15 lakh average quarterly balance in their accounts, or a minimum of ₹10 lakh average monthly balance in their savings account.

Users with a combined average monthly across HDFC Bank savings account, current account and fixed deposits of at least ₹30 lakh are also eligible for Imperia Banking.

For salaried customers, the eligibility criterion is having a net monthly salary of ₹3 lakh or more credited to an HDFC Bank corporate salary account.

From October 1, YES Bank has updated its charges for the salary account holders. Some of the revised charges include:

The RuPay Debit Card issuance fee for YES Bank’s Smart Salary Advantage Account is ₹200.

• For YES Bank’s Smart Salary Advantage Account and Smart Salary Exclusive Account holders, up to 3 free ATM transactions each month at metro locations and up to 5 transactions at non-metro locations are free. After this, a fee of ₹23 per financial transaction and ₹10 per non-financial transaction will be applicable.

• If there is no salary credit of at least ₹10,000 for the preceding three consecutive months, or if the accountholder does not maintain an Average Monthly Balance (AMB) of ₹10,000 in the previous month of the billing month, charges will be levied. The charges will vary on the basis of the AMB maintained.

• Cheques returned due to insufficient funds will attract a penalty of ₹500 for the first time. After this, if a cheque is returned, a fee of ₹750 would be applicable from the second time onwards. There are other types of cheque return charges depending on the reason for return.

Punjab National Bank

Customers of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) will have to pay more for lockers and some other services, starting from October 1. Here are some highlights:

• Currently, a stop payment instruction for a PNB savings account is ₹100 per instrument, and if it is requested for a series of cheques, a charge of ₹300 is applicable. Now, from October 1, one request will attract the same charge of ₹100, but for five or more cheques, a fee of ₹500 will be charged.

• Locker issuance charges have been hiked, depending on the size of the locker and the place of the branch. For instance, charges for medium-sized lockers will be ₹2,500 in rural areas, ₹3,000 in semi-urban areas and ₹4,000 in urban areas.

Other changes in fees are also proposed, including in standing instruction (SI) failure charges and nomination charges.

Speed Post revised tariffs and new features

From October 1, the base price for sending Inland Speed Post (documents) across the country, outside the sender’s local area, will be ₹47. The India Post has announced revised charges for Inland Speed Post (documents), which will come into effect on October 1.

RBI’s new banking rules

Starting October 4, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will switch to continuous cheque clearing, under which cheques will be cleared within a few hours instead of up to two days earlier. The rollout of the new system is expected to happen in two phases. The first phase will commence on October 4.

PFRDA’s updated pension charges

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has fixed the maximum charges applicable for various services provided by central recordkeeping agencies (CRAs) to National Pension System (NPS) subscribers. Charges for private sector subscribers (NPS and NPS Vatsalya) have been fixed at:

• e-PRAN Kit: ₹18
• Physical PRAN Card ₹40
• Transaction charge: 0

Tata Motors demerger

On October 1, 2025, Tata Motors' commercial vehicle (CV) business will be demerged into a new company, initially called TML Commercial Vehicles Ltd (TMLCV). Its passenger vehicle, Electric Vehicle (EV) and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business will be retained in its existing Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) entity.

Accordingly, if you are a Tata Motors shareholder, you will receive one fully paid-up share of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles Limited (TMLCV) of the same class.

Shares of both companies will list and trade separately on the bourses, which is important for investors who have Tata Motors as a part of their portfolio.

Small savings scheme rates from October to December

The Finance Ministry is expected to announce the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) interest rate for the October-December quarter of FY 2025-26 on September 30, 2025.

The SCSS currently offers 8.2% interest to senior citizens, which is payable from the date of deposit to March 31/September 30/December 31 in the first instance. Thereafter, it is payable on April 1, July 1, October 1 and January 1.

APY form change

India Post (Department of Posts) has updated the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) subscriber registration form ahead of the September 30 deadline.

RBI repo rate

The RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)’s ongoing meeting will conclude on October 1, when the central bank will announce its decision on monetary policy. According to most experts, the RBI is expected to keep the current repo rate unchanged at 5.5% in the upcoming policy announcement.

However, an SBI Research report recently suggested that a 25 basis point (bps) rate cut is the best possible option in the current environment.

Any change in the repo rate is crucial, as it impacts fixed deposits, home loans and several other financial aspects in India.