RBI Tightens Property Lending Before 2008
As Reserve Bank of India governor from 2003 to 2008, Y. V. Reddy raised risk weights and provisioning requirements on bank lending to commercial real estate and other fast-growing sensitive sectors, curbed banks' ability to book up-front gains from securitization, and tightened rules on derivatives. He did this during a boom, while facing pressure from government and industry to support faster growth. Indian banks came through the 2008 global crisis largely intact, and these measures are widely credited as one reason, alongside other factors such as limited global integration and heavy state ownership of banks.