Barclays Investments & Loans (BILL) has been asked by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to seek central bank's view to know if a number of proposed activities fall in the permitted 18 non-banking finance company (NBFC) activities.

FIPB wants BILL to seek RBI's point of view on including certain proposed activities such as collections and recovery services, estate and trust planning services under the 18 permitted NBFC activities.

The 18 NBFC activities for the purpose of foreign direct investment include merchant banking, underwriting, stock broking, asset management, venture capital, custodial services, credit card business and housing finance.

BILL is an investment arm of the UK based Barclays Bank Plc and it had approached FIPB to seek its approval for starting collection and recovery services. The company is already offering direct marketing and back office services.

Further the company also needs FIPB's consent for a range of other services such as estate and trust planning, advisory and developing financial solutions and trusteeship and administration services through downstream subsidiaries - Barclays Securities India Pvt Ltd (BSIPL) or Barclays Wealth Trustees (India) Private Ltd (BWTPL).

So far BWTPL has not started any operations.

Meanwhile the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Finance Ministry feels that the activities could fall within two categories of "Investment Advisory Services" and "Financial Consultancy". Both these are branches are a part of the 18 permitted NBFC activities.

But as the proposed activities were not clearly stated under the permitted activities, FIPB asked BILL to seek RBI's approval.

Currently Barclays Investment & Loans include unsecured personal loans and loans against properties. 60% shares of BILL are held by Barclays Bank Plc where as the remaining stakes are held by Barclays Mauritius Overseas Holdings Ltd, which is a fully owned subsidiary of Barclays Bank Plc.