RBI eases overseas borrowing rules for local companies

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will allow offshore insurance companies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds to lend to local companies for the long term, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday, easing rules for offshore borrowing. The RBI said it was taking a "more liberal approach" for long-term foreign currency borrowing as well as for external commercial borrowings denominated in Indian rupees. (http://bit.ly/1OzJ241) The RBI had released draft guidelines for the revised external commercial borrowing policy in September. It said on Monday it would review the policy after a year. (Reporting by Suvashree De Choudhury and Devidutta Tripathy, editing by Larry King)