National Housing Bank (NHB) has sought details from housing finance companies (HFCs) about their exposure to Satyam Computer Services and the two other companies promoted by the Raju family — Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties.
“We asked for the details last week. This is a precautionary step as we wanted to check how far such exposure, if any, is safe from the perspective of the HFCs. It is crucial as some of the companies (Maytas Properties) are in related activities,” a source at NHB said.
NHB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is the regulator for HFCs. RBI and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) have already sought data from entities under their jurisdiction.
On their part, the major HFCs said they do not have any exposure to the three companies. “NHB has sent a letter seeking the details about the possible exposure, but we have informed that we do not have any,” said HDFC Managing Director Keki Mistry.
“We do not have any exposure either in Satyam or Maytas Infra and we informed NHB last Friday,” LIC Housing Finance Director and Chief Executive Officer R R Nair added.
Last month, NHB had stepped up the monitoring process by introducing new monthly reporting format. Also, the regulator included some new items with respect to the exposure of HFCs to different sectors, which are considered to be sensitive in the wake of the global financial turmoil. The main focus of the exercise was on the beleaguered real estate sector.
Under the new format, HFCs were required to furnish more granular details about their borrowing pattern, asset-liability mismatch and different sources of funding. Earlier, these details were furnished once a year.
For banks, the exposure to Satyam is negligible, but those to Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties is high given the extent of projects under implementation. Banks have already frozen fresh credit flow to Satyam, while they are reviewing their stance on the other two companies.