National Housing Bank (NHB), the apex financial institution for housing, has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise its refinance limit to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 30,000 crore to provide liquidity to housing finance companies (HFCs), Business Standard reported.

NHB, which can mobilise up to 10 times its net owned funds at present, has asked the RBI to raise it to 12.5-13 times of the net owned fund, which stands at Rs 80,000 crore, the report said, adding that the proposal is for an enabling provision so that it can raise the refinance limit if it deems fit to do so.

“NHB has asked the RBI to provide a dispensation to it by hiking the lending limit, as prescribed in the central bank’s ‘Resource-raising norms for financial institutions’ guidelines of July 2015,” the report said.

Earlier, NHB also relaxed eligibility norms to help HFCs to avail refinance lending facility, the report said, adding that NHB’s step might help to serve as a window of confidence among lenders who are reluctant to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) after the Infrastructure Lending and Finance Services (IL&FS) faltered on its loans.