The ECB regulations have been the bane of both Indian borrowers wanting to borrow offshore and foreign lenders looking to lend to Indian credits. Although there is a consensus among market participants that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has responsibility for drafting the ECB guidelines, is generally acting in the interests of the Indian economy, many feel that it has to ease some of the restrictions imposed on borrowers under the ECB rules. Global credit markets conditions have undergo

Lending banks can invoke these clauses if they can demonstrate that they cannot borrow at benchmark rates (typically Libor) or, as is the case for many now, cannot even get a quote to borrow in the interbank market. The clause lets banks adjust the interest rate on loans to account for their increased funding costs. With the interbank lending markets experiencing frequent bouts of seizing up, lenders are resorting to the clause to pass on their added cost of funding to borrowers. A handful of lo

In the midst of a credit crisis that has put the staggering complexity of modern finance under scrutiny, one would think that a market centered on something as old-fashioned as banks lending money would be viewed favorably. If only things were that simple. The problem is that banks have to fund themselves and that is just about the hardest thing in the world at the moment. Nobody is lending money – and that spells trouble for loan banks. Those problems have manifested themselves in the interbank

At the end of July when hotel, gaming, and resort development company Las Vegas Sands announced it was planning to raise US$5.25bn to refinance and further develop its Venetian Macau subsidiary, market feedback seemed reasonably positive. Despite uncertain market conditions and without securing underwriting commitments, the firm was able to line up Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Bank of China, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and UOB Asia to act as g

Syndicated loans bankers once took pride in their market’s famous resilience and ability to stay open even when other markets were shut. But this assumption has been tested in the biggest market disruption in decades. “I have not seen an event like this in the loan market, at least in my time,” said one 18-year veteran. Leveraged loans have been hit particularly hard. Private equity sponsors that have relied extensively on cheap debt to maximise returns have remained sidelined even as asset pric

China may ease limits on business and mortgage loans in a bid to prevent a slowdown in exports and to maintain the economic growth amid a rapidly deteriorating global economic situation, according to Fang Gang, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, the central bank. This would be the second regulatory move since the PBOC reduced borrowing costs for the first time in six years and the reserve requirement ratio for commercial banks on September 15, the day after the US investment bank Lehman B