RBI revises Regulations for Non-banking Finance Lenders

The Reserve Bank of India, RBI, has revised regulations for non-banking finance lenders by directing them to get themselves rated by March 2016.

In the revised regulatory framework on NBFCs notified on Friday evening, RBI further said, those asset finance companies (AFCs) failing to achieve investment grade ratings by the end of March 2016, should not accept fresh public deposits and renewing existing ones.

In such an event, all existing deposits should runoff to maturity and NBFCs should report to the concerned RBI’s Regional Offices within 15 days.

It can be noted that the RBI had come out with a new regulatory framework for NBFCs last November, in which it insisted on having a much stronger capital base, failing which they would lose their registration.

The RBI has also tweaked rules in respect of net-owned funds, and pegged the mandatory requirement at 2 crore rupees for all NBFCs and has given time till April 2017 to comply.