Punjab National Bank has become one of the first banks to extend moratorium to Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) after the Reserve Bank of India cleared the doubts pertaining to the issue on Saturday.
The second largest Public Sector Lender has communicated to its NBFCs clients about the development this week.
“We have sent mails to all NBFCs for expressing their desire to avail moratorium. We are taking a call based on that,” a senior executive at PNB told the Economic Times.
Earlier, Banks were divided over the issue. While few started offering it from early April, State Bank of India and several others were against it.
On Saturday, RBI had conveyed to top lenders that even NBFCs including microfinance firms and housing finance companies eligible borrowers for moratorium. The central bank also informed them that they could use their judgment in a bid to decide the eligibility of firms based on their credit and liquidity profile.
About 12 public sector lenders and 10 private sector banks had not extended moratorium on payment to microfinance institutions till Monday, according to Sa-Dhan.
