No concern on liquidity of NBFCs, says SBI chairman

Assuring lending support to non-banking financial companies, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Sunday said there was no concern on liquidity of such firms, amid ongoing debt crisis in IL&FS Group.

Shares of housing finance companies came under sudden heavy selling pressure on Friday as investors raised concerns over rising cost of borrowing for the companies amid crisis at IL&FS.

Experts attributed the fall in NBFCs' scrips to tightness in money market and a lack of clarity on IL&FS exposure.

"Some comments are being attributed to SBI about the Bank being wary of lending to NBFCs. The rumours are baseless. SBI lends support to NBFCs in private and public sector within the regulatory policy framework and will continue to do so," Kumar said in a statement.

In fact, the recent regulatory guidelines on the co-lending model opens up further opportunities for collaboration between SBI and non-deposit taking NBFCs to increase lending to priority sectors, he added.

"There is no concern on liquidity of NBFCs in view of their liquid cash position and availability of committed lines," said the top official of the country's largest lender.

The scrip of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) plummeted 59.67 per cent to Rs 246.25 -- its 52-week low -- on the BSE. The company lost nearly Rs 10,000 crore worth in market cap.

Earlier this month, it came to light that IL&FS group defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 1,000 crore from Sidbi, while a subsidiary has also defaulted Rs 500 crore dues to the development finance institution.

While IL&FS has nearly Rs 35,000 crore consolidated debt, IL&FS Financial Services has Rs 17,000 crore of debt, which sits as standard asset for most of the lenders, according to a Nomura India report.

The group has seen its various long-term and short-term borrowing programmes downgraded to 'default' or 'junk' grades by credit rating agencies, even as the regulators are also probing alleged delay in disclosure about certain loan defaults.

Among others, capital markets regulator Sebi, the Reserve Bank, the Corporate Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry have received complaints about alleged wrongdoings at Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and its various group entities, including the listed ones.