Mumbai, Mar 26 (KNN) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the registration of Kolkata based NBFC Lofty Securities Private Limited, while twelve others have surrendered their registration certificates to the apex bank.

After this, these Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) can no longer transact the business of a Non-Banking Financial Institution.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), under the Ministry of Finance, had last year released a list of high risk NBFCs.

As of September 2017, there were 11,469 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) registered with the Reserve Bank of India. Over 82% of them have been categorised as high-risk financial institutions by FIU.

According to a report, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), all NBFCs have to appoint a principal officer in the financial institutions and report all suspicious and cash transactions of over Rs 10 lakh to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). But, these companies have been found flouting these rules as on January 31, 2018.

Lat month, RBI had launched an Ombudsman Scheme for NBFCs for redressal of complaints against them. The offices of the NBFC ombudsmen will function at four metro centres -- Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.

The 12 NBFCs that have surrendered their Certificates of Registrations are – New Delhi based Surya India Limited, United Finance and Agencies Private Limited (Presently known as M/s Ram Pershad Enterprises Private Limited); Kolkata based Ankit India Limited, TCI Bhoruka Projects Limited (Formerly known as M/s Karnatak Trading Corporation Limited), Grand Central Tea Industries Limited (Presently known as M/s Jagdamba TMT Mills Limited),  Mohta Holdings Private Limited; Punjab based M/s PLG Investments Private Limited (Presently known as PLG Diagnostics Private Limited), HSJ Investments and Holdings Private Limited, Maharaja Financial and Management Services Limited; Andhra Pradesh based Rajampet Permanent Fund Limited; Pune based Pudumjee Investment & Finance Co. Ltd; and Chennai based Panel Developers Private Limited(Presently M/s Nakoda Chennai Developers Private Limited). (KNN Bureau)