Asset Finance Company in India - Registration and Process

First and foremost an Asset Finance Company (AFC) is a Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFC). An Asset Finance Management Company under the Reserve Bank of India Act is a financial institution whose principal business is to finance physical assets supporting productive/economic activity like automobiles and cars, machineries like generator sets, lathe machines, earth moving equipment, tractors, machines and material handling equipment and industrial machines used for general purpose. It is a for-profit business company.

Some facts and figures

A detailed list of all the existing Asset finance companies in India is available at the official website of the Reserve Bank of India. Currently, there are roughly about 399 Asset finance companies in India that are registered with RBI. As per a directive of RBI in 2017, an asset finance company:-

1. Having the requisite minimum net owned fund as per RBI’s stipulation, and
2. Compliant with all the prudential norms

Can accept or renew public deposit, but in such case, the total amount along with the outstanding amount in the books of the company on the date of acceptance or renewal of such a deposit cannot exceed one and one-half times the value of its Net Owned Fund. An Asset Finance company already having more than one and one-half times of its Net Owned Fund cannot renew or accept fresh deposits till the time it reaches the revised limit.

Registration process

In order to register an Asset Finance Company with the Reserve Bank of India, the steps include:-

• Incorporation of the company. The AFC can be registered as a Private Limited Company or a Public Limited Company with any amount of capital.
• The next step involves the raising of authorized and paid-up share capital of Rs. 2 crores.
• The sum of Rs. 2 crores that have been raised as authorized and paid-up capital needs to be deposited in fixed deposit and a certificate of no lien is obtained from the said bank.
• To assemble all the required documents for registering the company as a Non-Banking Financial Company with the Reserve Bank of India.

The documents required for registering as an Asset Finance Company with RBI are:-

1. Certificate of Incorporation of the company
2. Certified copy of an extract of the clause in the Memorandum of Association related to the particular financial business
3. Copy of the Board Resolution
4. Copy of the fixed deposit receipt and bankers certificate of lien
5. Bankers report for applicant company/group companies
6. The CIBIL records for all shareholders and directors
7. The educational and experience proof of the promoters

Once the certificate copies are all in order, the applicant needs to file the application form online at the RBI authorized site COSMOS. On successful filling up of the online form, the applicant is issued a Company Application Reference Number.
After completing the online activity, the applicant is required to submit the hard copy of the application form along with the specified documents, as mentioned above to the Regional office of Reserve Bank of India. The Company Application Reference number is mandatory to be mentioned while submitting the documents physically.
The status of the application can be viewed and tracked online at the COSMOS site using the Company Application Reference Number
Registering an Asset Finance company is no mean an easy task. It is advisable to hire the services of an experienced financial and legal advisor in order to proceed smoothly and have the registration done without any hiccups.
For a company intending to register as an Asset Finance company with the RBI, the first step as mentioned above is to incorporate the company. The documents required for Incorporation include:-

1. PAN card copies of the promoters and directors
2. Identity proof of the promoters and directors (driving license, passport, voter card, Aadhaar card)
3. Address proof of the promoters and directors (bank statement, utility bills)
4. Passport size photograph of all the promoters and directors
5. Ownership document or Lease agreement of the proposed place of office of the company
6. Utility bill of the proposed office
7. No objection certificate from the owner in case of rented property
8. Net worth certificate of the directors and the shareholders

Enterslice is a leading fintech based legal firm, specialised in NBFCs registration & licensing. Asset Finance Company registration & Advisory is available over call.