Government had estimated last year that lenders would need to raise about $17 billion from markets over four years to meet total funding requirements of about $28 billion beyond projected profits.
In a bid to ease those fundraising pressures, the RBI said lenders can now apply gains from revaluation of property to core capital requirements under certain conditions.
The RBI also said conversions of foreign currency in financial statements can now more easily be considered common equity capital, while also easing rules on counting deferred tax assets.
The moves could free up an estimated Rs. 30,000 crore-Rs. 35,000 crore ($4.42-$5.16 billion) for state-owned lenders and Rs. 5,000 crore for private sector lenders, according to estimates by policymakers.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in January the central bank was working on identifying undervalued assets and other types of capital that could be counted as capital under Basel III requirements.
($1 = Rs. 67.8500)