Decoding RBI eMRM Guidelines: What Changes and Why

Decoding the RBI eMRM Guidelines

Solytics Partners presents “Decoding the RBI eMRM Guidelines: What the June 2026 Draft Requires, and Why It Matters,” a practical guide to one of India's most significant developments in model risk management. The Reserve Bank of India's June 2026 draft Guidance on Regulatory Principles for Model Risk Management proposes a shift from credit-model-focused oversight to a comprehensive, enterprise-wide framework covering every model with material decision impact.

The proposed guidance extends across all eleven categories of RBI-regulated entities and brings statistical models, rule engines, machine learning, Generative AI, Agentic AI, and third-party models within a common governance framework. It establishes expectations around board-approved governance, model inventory, risk-based tiering, independent validation, continuous monitoring, AI controls, human oversight, and non-delegable accountability for third-party models.

What’s Inside:

• Understanding the RBI eMRM Framework: Explore how the June 2026 draft expands model risk management from credit models to all models with material decision impact.
• Enterprise-Wide Governance: Understand the requirements for board-approved MRM frameworks, complete model inventories, risk-based tiering, and three lines of defence.
• Independent Validation and Continuous Monitoring: Learn how validation, performance monitoring, drift detection, change control, and remediation are expected to operate across the model lifecycle.
• AI, GenAI and Agentic AI Controls: Examine requirements covering explainability, fairness, hallucination controls, adversarial testing, AI security, human oversight, and kill-switch capabilities.
• Third-Party Model Accountability: Understand why outsourcing a model does not transfer accountability and what regulated entities must establish through due diligence, validation, audit rights, and ongoing oversight.
• Global Regulatory Context: Compare the RBI draft with major international frameworks, including US SR 26-02, UK PRA SS1/23, the EU AI Act, and Basel and ECB model-risk expectations.

Why This Whitepaper?

Developed by Solytics Partners' model risk management and AI governance specialists, this whitepaper translates the RBI's proposed requirements into practical considerations for financial institutions preparing for enterprise-wide model governance. It highlights the operational changes required to identify, inventory, tier, validate, monitor, govern, and evidence every model across its lifecycle, including AI and third-party models.

The whitepaper also examines how institutions can move from regulatory requirements to a scalable operating model, with centralized model inventory, risk-based governance, independent validation, continuous monitoring, AI assurance, and audit-ready evidence across the model estate.

About Solytics Partners

Solytics Partners is a global provider of AI Governance, Model Risk Management, Financial Crime Compliance, and advanced analytics solutions. The company helps financial institutions govern models across the full lifecycle, from statistical and machine learning models to Generative AI and autonomous agents, within a regulator-ready framework.