Bank aversion to NBFCs fuelled India’s liquidity crisis
Live MintMumbai: The liquidity crisis, which has become a bone of contention between the Reserve Bank of India and the government, has its roots in banks’ reluctance to lend to non-banking financial companies, according to bankers Mint spoke with. According to the chief financial officer of a leading public sector bank, lenders are wary of lending to certain NBFCs because of a heightened risk-perception about the sector. A press release from the central bank, dated 1 October, had said: “The Reserve Bank of India had telegraphed in its previous post-monetary policy press conferences that the system liquidity will move into deficit in the second half of the fiscal year and that the evolving liquidity conditions shall determine its choice of instruments for both transient and durable liquidity management.” A managing director and chief executive officer at a mid-size bank said on the condition of anonymity the bank is not lending to infra-financing NBFCs after the IL&FS crisis. It has allowed banks to use government securities as level 1 high-quality liquid assets equivalent to the bank’s incremental lending to NBFCs and HFCs after 19 October.