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Originated to transfer- new RBI regime on loan sales permits risk transfers

Team, Vinod Kothari Consultants P. Ltd.

finserv@vinodkothari.com

Major changes have been proposed by the RBI in the regime on what has become a major part of the business model of NBFCs and MFIs in the country – direct assignments (DAs). We have separately dealt with the Draft Directions on Securitisation of Standard Assets in a write up titled “New regime for securitisation and sale of financial assets

The term DA is so very typical of the Indian scene – globally, the practice of loan trading, loan sales or so-called whole-loan transfers has largely been out of the regulatory domain. However, in India, the motivation to shift from securitisation to DAs were partly the RBI Guidelines of 2006 which regulated securitisation but did not regulate DAs, and partly, the tax issues on securitisation that began prominent around 2011-12 or so. However, the DA model has, over the years, been a sizeable part of securitisation volumes in India, and is the mainstay of transfer of priority-sector loans from NBFCs to banks. Now that NBFCs have been permitted a major push for MSE lending by several GoI schemes, NBFCs are eagerly looking for another round of DA drive, and therefore, it is important to see whether the proposed regulatory regime for loan sales will facilitate NBFC-originated loans to end up on the books of banks and other investors.

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