RBI governor Shaktikanta Das meets foreign investors in Hong Kong

New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday said he had an interactive meeting with foreign investors in Hong Kong. This is his first interaction abroad with investors after taking over as the RBI’s governor in December last year. “Held an interactive meeting with FPIs in Hong Kong today (Tuesday). Good participation and discussion,” he said in a tweet. [caption id=“attachment_5766671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor. Reuters image.[/caption] Since he took over as 25th RBI Governor, he has hold a series of meeting with various stakeholders including heads of public sector banks, private sector banks, non-banking financial services, and industry chambers. The RBI last week proposed removal of 20 percent foreign portfolio investor (FPI) restriction on the corporate debt market. It was stipulated that no FPI should have an exposure of more than 20 percent of its corporate bond portfolio to a single corporate, including exposure to entities related to the corporate. This was decided as a part of the review of the FPI investment in corporate debt undertaken in April 2018. FPIs were given exemption from this requirement on their new investments till the end of March 2019 to adjust their portfolios. While the provision was aimed at incentivising FPIs to maintain a portfolio of assets, market feedback indicates that foreign investors have been constrained by this stipulation. To encourage a wider spectrum of investors to access the corporate debt market, the RBI in its sixth bi-monthly policy on February 7 said that it is now proposed to withdraw this exposure limit.