This post was originally published on The Economic Times
In a decisive move aimed at creating a stronger, more competitive corporate environment and enhancing the role of commercial banks in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released the Commercial Banks – Credit Facilities Amendment Directions, 2026, introducing a comprehensive framework for Acquisition Finance, a move that is likely to significantly reshape India’s M&A landscape.
The amendments form part of RBI’s broader revision of the Credit Facilities Directions, 2025, a process underway since October 2025 when the draft regulations were first released, which included parallel reforms on bridge financing, loans against securities, and a dedicated chapter on lending to Capital Market Intermediaries (CMIs). Yet, it is the detailed and long‑awaited Acquisition Finance Chapter that stands out as a transformative shift for corporate deal‑making.
Adding to this momentum, the RBI followed this up with the “Foreign Exchange Management (Borrowing and Lending) (First Amendment) Regulations, 2026” replacing several constraints under the erstwhile External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) framework with a more flexible, market-aligned structure to assist India Inc in raising offshore capital at market linked rates and widening the pool of
— Read the rest of this post, which was originally published on The Economic Times.
