From courts to capital markets: the shift toward market-led resolution in India’s stressed asset framework

In April 2025 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released Draft Reserve Bank of India (Securitisation of Stressed Assets) Directions 2025 potentially transforming the landscape of distressed asset resolution in India. In parallel since its enactment in 2016 the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has become the centrepiece of India’s formal insolvency regime. The RBI’s newly proposed framework if brought into force would allow market-based resolution through securitisation structures offering a possible alternative to the IBC’s court-supervised corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP). This International Briefing explores the implications of India’s emerging dual-track resolution architecture examining the regulatory structural and operational interplay between the IBC and RBI’s proposed draft directions. It analyses key points of convergence and divergence evaluates the risks of regulatory arbitrage...