Shares of Tata Investment Corp and Tata Chemicals climbed as much as 7% on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India classified Tata Sons among the 16 upper-layer non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), making it mandatory for the Tata Group's holding company to list on domestic stock exchanges under the existing regulatory framework.However, the RBI said it is examining Tata Sons' application to surrender its core investment company (CIC) registration, even as pressure mounts on the holding company to list its shares.As of March 31, 2026, Tata Sons had total assets of Rs 2.01 lakh crore, making its inclusion in the upper-layer NBFC category unavoidable under the current norms. Its large asset base could also make it difficult for the company to obtain deregistration as a CIC.Also read: Listing cloud still hangs over Tata sons with NBFC-UL tagThe central bank has said only entities that do not hold public funds, have no customer interface and have assets below Rs 1,000 crore will be eligible for deregistration by December 31.RBI further clarified that once an NBFC is designated as an upper-layer entity, it will remain subject to the enhanced regulatory framework for a minimum of five years, even if it no longer meets the qualifying criteria in later assessments.As a result, companies that were classified as upper-layer NBFCs in earlier years but fail to qualify under the latest review will continue to remain in the category and be governed by the stricter regulatory norms.Divide continuesTata Trusts, which controls 66% of Tata Sons through the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, passed a resolution in July 2025 to keep Tata Sons a privately held company. The Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group owns a significant minority stake, a part of which has been pledged to raise debt.Since then, two Tata trustees, Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan, have publicly backed the idea of listing Tata Sons.Earlier, The Economic Times had reported, citing sources, that efforts to find a workable solution for the SP Group's exit and unlock value in Tata Sons have been a key factor shaping discussions within the Tata Group.Read more: ET Exclusive: Tata Sons reported a 22% increase in annual profit for the year ended March 26While Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata continues to favour keeping Tata Sons unlisted and prefers a solution that avoids either a share buyback or additional borrowing, the Mistry family-led SP Group sees a public listing as the most practical way to unlock value. The SP Group owns 18.37% of Tata Sons and is looking to monetise a part of its holding to reduce its estimated debt of Rs 60,000 crore.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)