RBI relaxes new NCD norms for NBFCs

04 Jul 2013 Evaluate

In a big sigh of relief to the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has put on hold implementing a key directive issued last week with a proposal to have a minimum gap of six months between two successive issuances of privately-placed non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and said that it may not be operationalised immediately.

The RBI said that it is keeping the proposal on hold and will take decision on this in due course. The restriction for NBFCs to raise funds through NCDs has resulted into inadequate resource planning, and higher transaction cost. Further, the central bank asked all NBFCs to prepare a policy for resource planning which should cover the planning horizon and the periodicity of private placement and get it approved from their boards by September 30. It is expected that the move will benefit large NBFCs given their dependence on the bond market.

Last week, the apex bank issued a circular, which stated that private placement of debt should not have more than 49 investors; minimum subscription from single investor should be Rs 25 lakh and also stipulated the time frame between two NCD issuances. One of the main objectives of the restriction between two NCD issues was to promote discipline in resource planning and raising. However, the move was likely to increase borrowing costs for NBFCs and potentially create assets liability tenure mismatches.   

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