The term debt has been defined under Section 2 of “The Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993” as: Liability (including interest) due from any person, as claimed by a bank/ financial institution/ consortium of banks/ financial institutions during the course of any business activity undertaken by such institution, which is in cash/otherwise, secured/unsecured, or assigned or to be paid under a decree or order of a civil court or arbitration award or otherwise or under a mortgage and recoverable on, the date of the application.

The company registered under the Companies Act, 2013 whose principal business is Financial activity such as chit fund business, insurance business, loans and advances, acquisition of shares or other types of securities, leasing, etc. is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).

A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a financial institution that works like a bank but does not have a banking license offering financial products and services to customers.

Companies need funds to fulfill their daily obligations to run their business efficiently, some of the basic funding requirements are: Fulfill everyday operational requirements and support business needs; For business expansion,  Increasing the standards of business, Coping with rising competition in the financial market, Developing better products and services to meet the customer’s needs etc.

Any Advocate defined under the Advocates Act 1961 is entitled to practice law as per the Bar Council of India.

This article focuses on providing the variance between NBFC and Fintech companies.

Companies exempted from obtaining Certificate of Registration (CoR) from RBI: There are certain entities, though being involved in financial activities does not require CoR from RBI as such entities are governed by other Acts.

The computation of the "Net Owned Fund" can be done as:  (a) Aggregate the paid-up equity capital and free reserves as per the latest balance sheet of the company after deducting therefrom the accumulated balance of loss; deferred revenue expenditure; and other intangible assets; and (b) Deduct the following – Investments of such companies in shares of its subsidiaries; companies in the same group; all other non-banking financial companies; and Book value of debentures, bonds, outstanding loans and advances (including hire-purchase and lease finance) made to, and deposits with, subsidiaries of such company; and companies in the same group,to the extent, such amount is more than 10% of (a) above.

The broad categorization of NBFCs are: Asset Finance Company (AFC)  Investment Company (IC) Loan Company (LC) Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC) Systemically Important Core Investment Company (CIC-ND-SI) Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF-NBFC) Micro Finance Institution (NBFC-MFI) Non-Banking Financial Company – Factors (NBFC-Factors) Mortgage Guarantee Companies (MGC) Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) Various Returns and Intimations to be filed by NBFCs: NBS-1 Return: To be submitted by deposit-taking NBFCs on a quarterly basis to report financial details.

NBFC is incorporated under the Companies Act and its activities are governed by RBI.