New Delhi, July 16 -- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said it has rejected lenders' requests to allow them to acquire certain non-financial assets before a borrower turns non-performing, as well as to sell such assets back to the same borrower.

On 5 May, the RBI had released draft guidelines on the so-called specified non-financial assets (SNFA). It had said that entities regulated by the RBI usually do not transact in immovable assets as part of their core business operations, other than in exceptional cases where they acquire such immovable assets to satisfy claims on the borrower.

Under Section 9 of the Banking Regulation Act, banks are barred from holding such non-banking assets beyond a specified period. It had said in ...