NHB tweaks Rs 30,000 cr liquidity scheme to help HFCs avail refinance funds

The National Housing Bank has revised its Rs 30,000 crore liquidity infusion facility (LIFt) scheme to encourage housing finance companies to avail refinance funds.

Under the revised LIFt scheme, exposure cap of Rs 750 crore per HFC and exposure ceiling of 50 per cent of individual housing loan (IHL) have been removed, the NHB said in a statement.

The maximum exposure revised to 30 per cent of HFC's net owned fund (NOF) or 50 per cent of NHB's NOF, whichever is lower, it said.

The LIFt scheme was launched by the NHB in August 2019 with a corpus of Rs 30,000 crore to infuse liquidity in the housing finance system. The special liquidity window is available to HFCs till June 2020.

The NHB said that the timeline for creation of IHL portfolio of the HFCs increased from three months to six months. The existing LIFT scheme is bifurcated into two schemes based on meeting the eligibility criteria under the regular refinance.

Rate of interest will be 0.50 per cent above the rate of interest applicable under the Liberalised Refinance Scheme if the total assets are above Rs 2,000 crore, it said.