RBI eases Tier 1 capital regulations for banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eased some rules to bolster banks' capital, thereby providing state-run banks with much needed additional relief in their battle against bad loans. RBI has allowed some items on the bank's balance sheets, including the revaluation reserves linked to their property holdings, to be included in the Tier 1 capital of banks. Analysts say this will help shore up the capital of public sector banks by up to Rs 35,000 crore ($5.2bn). That will come on top of the Rs 25,000 ($3.7bn) in capital infusion provided by the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, in his 2016-2017 Budget, which most analysts had seen as inadequate.

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: The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday said it would ease rules on what lenders can count towards their core capital requirements under upcoming Basel III rules, in moves intended to ease pressure on the cash-constrained sector.Government had estimated last year that lenders would need to raise about $17 billion from markets over four years to meet total funding requirements of about $28 billion beyond projected profits.In a bid to ease those fundraising pressures, the RBI said lenders can now apply gains from revaluation of property to core capital requirements under certain conditions.The RBI also said conversions of foreign currency in financial statements can now more easily be considered common equity capital, while also easing rules on counting deferred tax assets.The moves could free up an estimated Rs 30,000 crore-Rs 35,000 crore ($4.42-$5.16 billion) for state-owned lenders and Rs 5,000 crore for private sector lenders, according to estimates by policymakers.RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in January the central bank was working on identifying undervalued assets and other types of capital that could be counted as capital under Basel III requirements.($1 = Rs 67.8500)