<div> </div><div>The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday relaxed rules for Indian companies to raise money in rupees from overseas lenders.</div><div> </div><div>The overseas lenders will have to enter into currency swap transactions with their overseas banks who in turn will provide rupees by tapping a bank in India for extending funds in rupees to the corporate.</div><div> </div><div>Earlier, an Indian corporate offshore had no access to borrow in rupees from overseas market and had to first take a dollar loan and then convert the same into rupees which included undertaking the foreign currency risk.</div><div> </div><div>However, under the relaxed rules, the forex risk will shift from Indian corporate to the lender of that fund offshore, a senior foreign banker said.</div><div> </div><div>The back to back swap arrangement between the offshore lender, the overseas bank and the bank in India will be subject to underlying external commercial borrowing rules, the RBI said.</div><div> </div><div>(Reuters)</div>
