KOLKATA: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has called a meeting with the country's top banks on Saturday on extending the benefits of payments moratorium to non-bank lenders, two people familiar with the development told ET. The move comes after an apex court direction to the regulator that the intended beneficiaries get their due.

Therefore, several lenders, including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank, which were earlier not in favour of extending the three-month payment holiday to non-banking finance companies and microfinance firms, may now need to review their decision.

The Supreme Court had recently asked the RBI to ensure that every borrower gets the moratorium benefit in “letter and spirit.”

The meeting will be conducted through video conference, two bank chief executives said, confirming the development.

The banking regulator has also called a separate meeting with leading NBFCs and microfinance firms along with their industry organisations, which have been pleading the authorities for getting the moratorium benefit from their lending banks.

The banking sector was divided over the issue of moratorium to NBFCs and MFIs, which borrow from them for on-lending. Besides a host of public sector banks, several private sector lenders were also against it. Foreign banks, on the other hand, have been more open, captains of the microfinance sector said.

These lenders have, however, offered the benefit to retail borrowers to tide over the period of economic stress induced by the lockdown.

"If SBI extends it, most other banks are likely to follow," a senior executive at a rival bank said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday told RBI to ensure that its March 27 guidelines, directing lending institutions to allow a three-month moratorium to all borrowers, be implemented.

“The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the circular…issued by the Reserve Bank of India has not been implemented by the banks,” Supreme Court said. “In view of the above, we direct the Reserve Bank of India to ensure implementation of the circular…in its letter and spirit.”

RBI had told banks to devise a board-driven policy for offering moratorium on payments to stressed borrowers as part of a financial package to fight the Covid-19 induced stress.

"The direction from SC on going by the spirit should hopefully end the moratorium issue," said Manoj Nambiar, chairman at Microfinance Institutions Network, a self-regulator for NBFC-MFIs.

In the absence of moratorium from all their lenders, NBFCs and MFIs have come under severe stress, people close to the matter said. They have extended moratorium to their lenders, but the absence of back-to-back support from banks has created liquidity mismatches for them.