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New Delisting Regime: Key Highlights

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has amended the SEBI (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2021 (“Amendment”). The new regime introduces fixed price delisting as an option for take-private transactions. In addition to the reverse book building (“RBB”) route, existing promoters can now use this new route, depending on the viability based on case specific nuances to take their listed entity off the exchange. The key parameters are summarised below:Continue Reading New Delisting Regime: Key Highlights

INTRODUCTION

  • The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has published the “Guidelines on Voluntary transition of Small Finance Banks to Universal Banks” dated April 26, 2024 (“SFB Guidelines 2024”), setting out the glide path for voluntary transition of Small Finance Banks (“SFBs”) to universal banks (“Universal Banks”) in terms of:
    • Guidelines for “on-tap” Licensing of Small Finance Banks in Private Sector dated December 5, 2019 (“SFB Guidelines 2019”);
    • Guidelines for “on tap” Licensing of Universal Banks in the Private Sector dated August 1, 2016 (“Universal Bank Guidelines”);
    • Reserve Bank of India (Acquisition and Holding of Shares or Voting Rights in Banking Companies) Directions, 2023 dated January 16, 2023 (“Acquisition Directions 2023”); and
    • Guidelines on Acquisition and Holding of Shares or Voting Rights in Banking Companies dated January 16, 2023 (“Acquisition Guidelines 2023”).

Continue Reading SFB to Universal Bank – New Glide Path

RBI’s Fintech Sandbox Proposal Startups

Technological innovation in the financial space, popularly known as ‘fintech’, has been at the forefront of regulatory thinking in recent times and is widely considered to be the panacea to the thorny issues of financial inclusion and ease of access to financial products/solutions, etc.

In 2018, the inter-regulatory Working Group (WG) set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to review the granular aspects of fintech and its implications, released a report being the ‘Report of the Working Group on FinTech and Digital banking’. One of the WG’s key recommendations was the introduction of an appropriate framework for the creation of a regulatory sandbox (RS) where the RBI could provide the requisite regulatory guidance to test products in a controlled environment.
Continue Reading Learning by Doing? The RBI’s Fintech Sandbox Proposal