In a judgement pronounced earlier this month, the Bombay High Court re-emphasized the requirements of natural justice to be followed by banks when designating a borrower who has defaulted on debt as a ‘willful defaulter’. This judgement is in line with the jurisprudence laid down by the Supreme Court and multiple High Courts on banks declaring borrowers as ‘willful’ defaulters in exercise of the...
Open Questions on RBI’s Enforcement Actions in Indian Fintech
“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there’s no turning back.” – Gloria Steinem Over the last month and a half, the enforcement actions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with respect to Paytm and in relation to certain payment arrangements through corporate cards have raised substantive questions of law, facts and due process. This...
The Self-Regulatory Paradigm for FinTechs: A Critical Analysis
[Karthika S. Babu and Snigdha are 3rd year B.A., LL.B. students at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] In an attempt to align the pace of regulatory oversight with the exponential rate at which fintech is revolutionising the financial services environment, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) recently released the much debated Draft Framework for Self-Regulatory Organisation(s) in the...
Transforming the Financial Landscape: RBI’s Overhaul of Forex Authorization Framework
[Harshal Chhabra and Shaswat Kashyap are 2nd year and 3rd year students respectively at Gujarat National Law University] In response to the dynamic shifts in the financial landscape, the Reserve Bank of India (the RBI) on 26 December 2023 introduced a draft licensing framework for Authorized Persons (APs) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (the Act). This move signifies a pivotal...
RBI’s SRO Framework: Shaping Responsible Growth in the Indian Financial Sector
[Shaswat Kashyap and Anand Vardhan are third-year law students at Gujarat National Law University] With the ever-growing adoption of innovative technologies, coupled with the rapid growth of regulated entities, it is becoming cumbersome for the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) to effectively regulate the sector. Self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) can provide a vital link between the regulator...
The RBI’s Watchful Eye on AIFs: Navigating Conflict and Evergreening Risks
[Dhaval Bothra is a law student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] As the chief regulator of financial institutions, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) oversees varied entities from commercial banks to non-banking financial companies, ensuring prudent behaviour and protecting the interests of investors. Among the plethora of financial instruments under its purview, alternative investment funds...
RBI’s Draft Directions on Wilful Defaulters: Implications and Concerns
[Aamir Kapadia and Tejas Venkatesh are penultimate year BBA L.L.B. (Hons.) students at Jindal Global Law School] On September 21, 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) released the Draft Master Direction on treatment of Wilful Defaulters and Large Defaulters. The purpose behind the draft is to solicit public comments on proposed regulations to tighten the norms applicable to wilful defaulters...
A Bank’s Post-Merger Liability for Pre-Merger Crimes
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court in Religare Finvest Limited v. State of NCT of Delhi (2023INSC819) considered the question whether the transferee bank in a merger can be fastened with corporate criminal liability for offences committed by the officials of the transferor bank prior to a merger of the two entities. The Court answered in the negative given the specific facts and circumstances...
‘Enabling’ Provisions of PMLA: Casting a Net Too Wide?
[Bhamini Tanwani and Vanshika Manglani are fourth-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur] The High Court of Delhi (‘the Court’) in case of PayPal Payments Private Limited v. Financial Intelligence Unit Indiaheld that payment platform PayPal is included in the definition of ‘payment system operator’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002...
Fine-Tuning the FLDG Framework: Sectoral Caps Reflecting Default Rate Variations
[Ritvij Ratn Tiwari is a 3rd-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.] In June 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) issued guidelines regulating the arrangements for sharing the losses arising from defaulted loans, popularly called default loss guarantee (“DLG”), between regulated entities (“REs”) and lending service providers (“LSPs”). These...
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