The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued amendment directions revising the risk-weighting framework for non-banking financial companies' (NBFCs) exposure to infrastructure projects. Under the revised capital adequacy norms, loans extended by NBFCs to "high-quality infrastructure projects" will attract lower risk weights, subject to specified conditions. Loans to such projects where the borrower has repaid at least 2% of the sanctioned project debt will carry a risk weight of 75%, while those where at least 5% of the sanctioned debt has been repaid will attract a lower risk weight of 50%.
The central bank noted further that if projects initially classified as high-quality infrastructure projects subsequently fail to meet the prescribed conditions, the exposures will revert to higher risk weights applicable to infrastructure lending under the existing framework. The repayment thresholds will be assessed based on the total sanctioned project debt, including any additional debt sanctioned through loan takeovers or otherwise. RBI has defined the criteria for classifying infrastructure lending as exposure to "high-quality infrastructure projects" under the concentration risk management framework. To qualify, projects must have completed at least one year of operations after achieving commercial operations without breaching material lender covenants, and the exposure must be classified as 'standard' in the lender's books.
RBI noted that the revised framework also requires that project revenues depend on concession or contractual rights granted by the Centre, state governments, public sector entities, or statutory bodies, with provisions that protect these rights throughout the concession period. The lenders must benefit from strong contractual safeguards, including escrow or trust and retention account mechanisms to ring-fence cash flows, pari-passu charge over project assets, and risk-mitigation features such as step-in rights or minimum termination payments.
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