The Bank – who they are Initially operating from the small town of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India, Utkarsh was established in 2009 as a Micro Finance Institution. Over the years it has evolved into a Small Finance Bank with the objective of creating “umeed” (hope) amongst the unbanked population by providing micro, small and … Continue Reading
On January 25, 2023, the Government of India launched and sold its first-ever Sovereign Green Bond issuance for Rs80 billion ($1 billion); with half in five-year bonds at a coupon rate of 7.1% and the other half in 10-year bonds at a coupon rate of 7.29%. The auction for the second issuance took place on … Continue Reading
Read time: 4 minutes External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) are commercial loans advanced to Indian borrowers in a foreign currency by non-India resident Lenders. Following the gradual relaxation of India’s tight external debt controls in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, ECBs have emerged as an important source of funding for eligible Indian entities, particularly in the … Continue Reading
In January 2022, Dinesh Khara, the Chairman of the State Bank of India announced that the National Asset Reconstruction Company (“NARCL”) has received all approvals to commence its operations. NARCL is what is colloquially known as a bad bank, formed to acquire illiquid and risky assets, such as bad debt, from distressed financial institutions. NARCL … Continue Reading
During this year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, pledged that India would cut its emissions to net zero by 2070, and that by 2030 it would: increase non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 GW; meet 50 per cent of energy requirement from renewable energy; reduce total projected carbon emissions by … Continue Reading
Read time: 2 minutes 50 seconds Over the summer, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notice to banks and other RBI-regulated entities, emphasising the need to speed up the transition away from LIBOR. The RBI notice states that banks and financial institutions should not enter into any new LIBOR-related contracts after 31 December … Continue Reading
Read time: 4 minutes 50 seconds As well as ringing in the start of a hopefully brighter and better 2021, January also saw Indian banks testing the waters of LIBOR transition, with State Bank of India and ICICI Bank involved in their first alternative risk free rate transactions. Utilising the US dollar Secured Overnight Financing … Continue Reading
Read time: 4 minutes As terms like social distancing and the second wave have permeated our lives throughout the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, people have been forced to adapt to the new normal. It hasn’t been all bad, and an unanticipated quirk of lockdown has been the huge uptake in hobbies and personal interests as people … Continue Reading
Read time: 3 minutes 15 seconds In June 2020, three of the large global rating agencies – Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”), Fitch Ratings (“Fitch”) and S&P Global Ratings (“S&P”) reviewed India’s sovereign credit rating. Interestingly, the agencies diverged in their approaches – Moody’s, which had previously rated India a notch higher than S&P and Fitch, … Continue Reading
Read time: 3 minutes The COVID-19 pandemic has changed, at least temporarily, all facets of society and has had a truly global impact. The scale of fatalities and the losses suffered by families are truly tragic. Whilst the impact of the virus from a medical perspective is starting to become clearer, the economic impact of … Continue Reading
Read time: 3 minutes Innovation and creating purposeful change for communities is at the very heart of what social impact finance is all about. Such impact investments have never shied away from embracing that latest technological innovation or challenging the status quo. In this vein, FinTech initiatives such as blockchain have the potential to prove … Continue Reading
This may be a slightly odd question with which to start a legal blog post, but do you like burritos, wine, or chocolate? Who doesn’t, right? If only there was a way of making money off your addiction to tasty Mexican treats or decadent Swiss truffles? Well, as it turns out, there might be… Mini-bonds have become … Continue Reading
The Investment Plan, developed by the European Commission, has the potential to be one of the most important and radical changes to how the European Union operates in the last 25 years. Not only will it seek to harmonise the financial and regulatory barriers to investment, but it will look to harness the collective power of … Continue Reading
As one of the newest junior associates to join the growing Structured Finance Group at Reed Smith, there are times when I feel that I have the best seat in the house to witness the changes going on in this tumultuous period for our financial markets. The economy as a whole, and its associated regulatory … Continue Reading
