References — the domain authorities

Sources the ontology and metrics anchor to. Where a specific figure (e.g. an exact FOIR ceiling) isn’t a single regulatory number, it is marked ⚠️ VALIDATE in the relevant doc and treated as a configurable convention, not a citation. This list says what to check against, not that every number here is already pinned.

Payment rails & instruments (channels, ontology §3) ✅

NPCI — UPI, IMPS, NACH, RuPay specifications and operating circulars (npci.org.in).
RBI — NEFT and RTGS (RTGS is high-value, ≥ ₹2,00,000), cheque clearing / CTS, and the broader payments-system framework (rbi.org.in).

Underwriting & credit conventions (metrics, risk) ✅ SME-reviewed 2026-06-18

Source: credit/underwriting SME review, 2026-06-18 (agenda + outcome in validation-checklist.md). The defaults below were reviewed and the engine updated; they remain per-lender configurable.

FOIR / DBR — no single RBI-mandated retail ceiling; lender policy, income-band dependent per the SME (tighter for low income, slight flexibility for high). Defaults in metrics.md §4.
Income assessment — variable/seasonal/self-employed income reviewed: business/professional income gets a looser variation cap; irregular income is penalised, not auto-declined.
Bounce / dishonour treatment — NACH/ECS and cheque dishonour confirmed High severity, recency-weighted (≤6mo full, 7–12mo partial, older audit-only); a single recent bounce keeps a borrower out of low, and ≥2 dishonours auto-decline (liquidity flags do not). Minimum coverage, stale-income windows, and large-credit pass-through escalation also defined (round 2, 2026-06-18).

Data protection & residency ✅

DPDP Act 2023 (India) — consent, purpose limitation, data-principal rights. Drives the delete-on-analysis default, the retention vault, and consent text.
Account Aggregator / Sahamati — consent-based financial-data sharing framework (the future AA ingestion path; covers ~38% of borrowers today, so PDF-first stays relevant).

How to use this

When promoting a ⚠️ VALIDATE threshold to ✅ grounded, cite the specific source here (circular number, lender policy doc, or SME sign-off with date) and remove the marker in the relevant doc.

The open items are gathered, with their current defaults and the specific question for each, in validation-checklist.md — the agenda for an SME / target-lender review.