November 10, 2005
All Commercial Banks/Financial Institutions
(excluding RRBs)
Dear Sir,
Revised Guidelines on Corporate Debt Restructuring
(CDR) Mechanism
Please refer to our circular DBOD
No. BP.BC. 68/21.04.114/2002-03 dated February 5, 2003 on the captioned
subject wherein detailed guidelines on Corporate Debt Restructuring System were
issued incorporating therein the recommendations of the High Level Group under
the chairmanship of Shri Vepa Kamesam, then Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of
India, for facilitating timely and transparent mechanism for restructuring corporate
debts of viable corporate entities affected by internal or external factors,
outside the purview of BIFR, DRT and other legal proceedings, for the benefit
of all concerned.
2. A Special Group was constituted in September
2004 with Smt.S.Gopinath, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India to undertake
a review of the Scheme. The Special Group had suggested certain changes / improvements
in the existing Scheme for enhancing its scope and making it more efficient.
Based on the recommendations made by the Special Group revised draft guidelines
on Corporate Debt Restructuring were prepared and circulated among banks for
comments. On the basis of the feedback received the draft guidelines have been
reviewed and the revised guidelines on CDR mechanism are furnished in the Annexure.
3. The major modifications made in the existing
CDR mechanism relate to
a. extension of the scheme to entities with
outstanding exposure of Rs.10 crore or more
b. requirement of support of 60% of creditors
by number in addition to the support of 75% of creditors by value with a view
to make the decision making more equitable
c. discretion to the core group in dealing
with wilful defaulters in certain cases other than cases involving frauds
or diversion of funds with malafide intentions.
d. linking the restoration of asset classification
prevailing on the date of reference to the CDR Cell to implementation of the
CDR package within four months from the date of approval of the package.
e. restricting the regulatory concession
in asset classification and provisioning to the first restructuring where
the package also has to meet norms relating to turn-around period and minimum
sacrifice and funds infusion by promoters.
f. convergence in the methodology for computation
of economic sacrifice among banks and FIs
g. limiting RBI’s role to providing broad
guidelines for CDR mechanism
h. enhancing disclosures in the balance sheet
for providing greater transparency
i. pro-rata sharing of additional finance
requirement by both term lenders and working capital lenders
j. allowing OTS as a part of the CDR mechanism
to make the exit option more flexible and
k. regulatory treatment of non-SLR instruments acquired while
funding interest or in lieu of outstanding principal and valuation of such instruments.
Yours faithfully,
(Anand Sinha)
Chief General Manager-In-Charge