New Delhi, April 10 -- Banks rushed to settle their foreign exchange positions ahead of Friday's deadline set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), five treasury officials told Mint. Despite the new net open position (NOP) restrictions being framed as temporary, bankers expect these curbs to remain in place for several months.

On 27 March, the RBI capped banks' NOPs in the domestic market at $100 million at the end of each business day, and mandated that banks comply with this rule by 10 April. In banking and foreign exchange, an NOP is the difference between a bank's total assets and total liabilities in a specific foreign currency (like the US dollar). It measures a bank's unhedged exposure to exchange rate fluctuations.

"Our bank does ...