To encourage insurers to participate in the financing of the infrastructure sector, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has done away with the requirement of case to-case approval for an investment in an Infrastructure Debt Fund (“IDF”). Pursuant to this relaxation, insurers are allowed to make investments in IDF- Non-Banking Financial Company (“NBFCs”), which will be reckoned as infrastructure investments, subject to the following conditions:
- the IDF-NBFC must be registered with RBI;
- debt securities must have residual tenure of not less than 5 (five) years;
- it must have a minimum credit rating of AA or its equivalent by a credit rating agency registered with SEBI to be eligible for approved investments; and
- exposure norms as per Note 3 of Regulation 9 of IRDAI (Investment) Regulations, 2016 will be applicable.
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