Norms mandating loan default disclosures by listed companies deferred: Sebi

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday decided to hold further discussions on its proposed norms mandating listed companies to make an immediate disclosure about their loan defaults.

The new rules were to come into effect initially from October but were deferred at that time and a revised proposal was presented before the Sebi board at a meeting in Mumbai. The board, however, decided to defer a decision and felt further discussion was required, the Sebi officials said after the meeting.

Earlier, Sebi had put off the implementation of its directive, which required listed firms to inform exchanges if they default on loan payments to banks and financial institutions, "until further notice". The directive's implementation was put off just a day before it was supposed to be implemented on October 1.

Banks had asked for more time for the new rules as the Indian credit market was different from its Western counterparts where such a disclosure is mandatory.

In August, the regulator had directed listed companies to disclose from October 1 any payment defaults to banks and financial institutions within one working day of such a miss.

The move came against the backdrop of the government and the Reserve Bank of India stepping up efforts to tackle the menace of bad loans amounting to over Rs 8 lakh crore.