Non Banking Financial Companies INTRODUCTION: We studied about banks, apart from banks the Indian Financial System

has a large number of privately owned, decentralised and small sized financial institutions known as Non-banking financial companies. In recent times, the non-financial companies (NBFCs) have contributed to the Indian economic growth by providing deposit facilities and specialized credit to certain segments of the society such as unorganized sector and small borrowers. In the Indian Financial System, the NBFCs play a very important role in converting services and provide credit to the unorganized sector and small borrowers. NBFCs provide financial services like hire-purchase, leasing, loans, investments, chit-fund companies etc. NBFCs can be classified into deposit accepting companies and non-deposit accepting companies. NBFCs are small in size and are owned privately. The NBFCs have grown rapidly since 1990. They offer attractive rate of return. They are fund based as well as service oriented companies. Their main companies are banks and financial institutions. According to RBI Act 1934, it is compulsory to register the NBFCs with the Reserve Bank of India. The NBFCs in advanced countries have grown significantly and are now coming up in a very large way in developing countries like Brazil, India, and Malaysia etc. The non-banking companies when compared with commercial and co-operative banks are a heterogeneous (varied) group of finance companies. NBFCs are heterogeneous group of finance companies means all NBFCs provide different types of financial services.

Non-Banking Financial Companies constitute an important segment of the financial system. NBFCs are the intermediaries engaged in the business of accepting deposits and delivering credit. They play very crucial role in channelizing the scare financial resources to capital formation. NBFCs supplement the role of the banking sector in meeting the increasing financial need of the corporate sector, delivering credit to the unorganized sector and to small local borrowers. NBFCs have more flexible structure than banks. As compared to banks, they can take quick decisions, assume greater risks and tailormake their services and charge according to the needs of the clients. Their flexible structure helps in broadening the market by providing the saver and investor a bundle of services on a competitive basis. Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) are a constituent of the institutional structure of the organized financial system in India. The Financial System of any country consists of financial Markets, financial intermediation and financial instruments or financial products. All these Items facilitate transfer of funds and are not always mutually exclusive. Inter-relationships Between these are parts of the system e.g. Financial Institutions operate in financial markets and are, therefore, a part of such markets. NBFCs at present providing financial services partly fee based and partly fund based. Their fee based services include portfolio management, issue management, loan syndication, merger and acquisition, credit rating etc. their asset based activities include venture capital financing, housing finance, equipment leasing,

hire purchase financing factoring etc. In short they are now providing variety of services. NBFCs differ widely in their ownership: Some are subsidiaries of large

Manufacturers (e.g., T.V. Motors T.V. Finances and Services Ltd). Many others are owned by banks such as ICICI Banks, ICICI Securities Ltd, SBI Capital Market Ltd, Muthoot Bankers Muthoot Financial Services Ltd a key player in Kerala financial services. Other financial institutions are IFCIs IFCI Financial Services Ltd or IFCI Custodial Services Ltd (Devdas, 2005). Non-banking Financial Institutions carry out financing activities but their resources are not directly obtained from the savers as debt. Instead, these Institutions mobilize the public savings for rendering other financial services including investment. All such Institutions are financial intermediaries and when they lend, they are known as Non-Banking Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs) or Investment Institutions. The term Finance is often understood as being equivalent to money. However, final exactly is not money; it is the source of providing funds for a particular activity. The word system, in the term financial system, implies a set of complex and closely connected or inter-linked Institutions, agents, practices, markets, transactions, claims, and liabilities in the Economy. The financial system is concerned about money, credit and finance. The three terms are intimately related yet are somewhat different from each other:

Money refers to the current medium of exchange or means of payment.

Credit or loans is a sum of money to be returned, normally with interest; it refers to a debt

Finance is monetary resources comprising debt and ownership funds of the state, company or person.