RBI Divests Stake In Nabard, National Housing Bank

The Reserve Bank of India has divested its stake in two all-India institutions to the Government of India.

The RBI has divested its entire stake in the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, or Nabard, for Rs 20 crore. It has also divested its stake in the National Housing Bank for Rs 1,450 crore, the central bank disclosed in a release on Wednesday.

The proposal to transfer the RBI’s stake in institutions like State Bank of India, Nabard and National Housing Bank was first mooted by the Narasimham Committee in 2001. While the RBI’s stake in SBI was transferred to the government in 2007, the process of transferring stake in the other two entities dragged on.

In case of Nabard, the RBI transferred 71.5 percent stake to the government in October 2010 for Rs 1,450 crore. The residual shareholding was divested on Feb. 26, 2019, the RBI said on Wednesday.

For National Housing Bank, the stake transfer process was delayed due to legislative changes required.

The Finance Bill 2018 amended the National Housing Bank Act, 1987, to allow for the transfer of stake. This has now been done with the RBI divesting 100 percent shareholding in National Housing Bank.