Indiabulls Housing-Lakshmi Vilas Bank merger not approved yet

The Reserve Bank of India has said that it has not yet approved the merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and Indiabulls Housing Finance. The statement comes after the boards of the two entities approved a merger on Friday. In a statement issued on Saturday, RBI said, “It is clarified that the presence of additional directors nominated by the RBI on the Board of LVB does not imply any approval of the RBI of the merger proposal… Moreover, the additional directors have clearly mentioned at the meeting that they have no view on the proposal.” RBI has said that the proposals, as and when received from these entities, will be examined as per extant regulatory guidelines. The central bank has approved mergers between banks and finance companies in the past.