Moratorium: Banks may give NBFCs a break

Banks could review extending the moratorium to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) after a meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday.

Written by Guest

May 4, 2020 00:50 IST

As much as 31% or more of the requirement would be raised through debt from bond markets, banks and NBFCs.

By Ankur Mishra

Banks could review extending the moratorium to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) after a meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday, sources close to development told FE. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das held meetings with heads of major public and private sector banks in two separate sessions through a video conference, the regulator said in a release on Saturday.

The moratorium for NBFCs was discussed at the meeting, and the regulator is understood to have asked banks to consider a moratorium, at least, on a case-to-case basis. “We will review extending the moratorium to NBFCs at board level,” a banker told FE.

FE reported earlier that public sector lender Bank of India has already provided a moratorium to NBFCs. The RBI, on March 27, permitted lending institutions to defer installments of term loans by three months from March 1, 2020. The NBFC sector has also given customers a repayments holiday but has not got one from banks.

According to bankers, the RBI had already has not barred them from giving NBFCs a moratoriumand has left it to banks to decide. The regulator clarified this after Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) reached out to it. At the last meeting of IBA held on April 18, no consensus emerged on granting moratorium to NBFCs.

While Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank were in favour of giving moratorium relief to NBFCs, State Bank of India (SBI) had continued to maintain the stance of not providing moratorium, as per sources.

This article was first uploaded on May four, twenty twenty, at fifty minutes past twelve in the am.