Tag: Banking
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Corporate Structure for Foreign Banks in India
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Historically, the RBI appears to have had a preference for allowing foreign banks to operate in India as branches rather than separately incorporated subsidiaries. Consequently, most (if not all) foreign banks have been established as branches for the purposes of banking law as well as company law. Apart from the fact…
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Legality of Sale of NPAs Between Banks
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Last week, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on whether non-performing assets/loans (NPAs) can be transferred between banks without the concurrence of the borrowers. The case involved a transfer of NPAs (relating to the borrower, APS Star Industries Ltd.) from ICICI Bank to Kotak Mahindra Bank. The borrower was in liquidation.…
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Entry of New Private Sector Banks
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a discussion paper on “Entry of New Banks in the Private Sector”, which paves the way for granting new banking licences. The discussion paper compares India’s position with international experience and then suggests possible approaches (listing both pros and cons) for the way…
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Legal character of an overdraft facility
[Posted by Shantanu Naravane] Earlier this month, a division bench of the Bombay High Court considered an important question regarding the legal character of an overdraft facility offered to a customer. The issue before the Court in Sargam Foods v. State of Maharashtra, was whether the cash credit facility offered by a bank can be…
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Regulating Bankers’ Pay
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Consistent with international trends to impose greater regulation on executive compensation in banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued draft guidelines on compensation of whole time directors/ chief executive officers / risk takers and control function staff. This applies to private sector and local area banks and all foreign…
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The Meaning of a “Debt”
[Posted by V. Niranjan] We have discussed the role of the Debt Recovery Tribunal on this blog, and noted the Supreme Court’s decision in Nahar holding that an “independent suit” filed by a borrower is maintainable in civil court, despite the provisions of the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993…
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U.S. Financial Reforms: The “Volcker Rule”
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Last week, the U.S. unveiled a series of reforms to deal with some of the lessons learnt from the financial crisis. Following is an extract of the President’s remarks that outline the proposals: First, we should no longer allow banks to stray too far from their central mission of serving their…
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Supreme Court Rejects NBFC Claim on Sticky Interest – Part I
[Posted by V. Niranjan] Non-banking-financial institutions (“NBFCs”) face a serious setback after the judgment of the Supreme Court this Monday (11 January 2010) in Southern Technologies Ltd. v. JCIT. This blog has discussed a long-standing controversy in Indian law on the treatment of “sticky” advances. It is useful to briefly recapitulate the contours of this…
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Fraud and Bank Guarantees
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] Often, it so happens in the commercial world that a contract between two parties requires one to provide a performance guarantee to the other. Accordingly, the party provides a bank guarantee; but the guarantee itself is expressed to be “unconditional” and “irrevocable”. The understanding of the parties is that the guarantee…