Member Article

The National Financial Regulatory Administration ("NFRA") issued theAdministrative Measures for Syndicated Loan Business("Administrative Measures") on 12 October 2024, which will take effect from 1 November 2024 and shall amend and replace theGuidelines on Syndicated Loan Businessissued by the China Banking Regulatory Commission on 1 August 2011 (the “Business Guidelines”). NFRA released a draft of the Administrative Measures for public consultation on 22 March 2024. We summarized and interpreted the major amendments of the consultation draft (the "Consultation Draft") to the Business Guidelines (for more details, please refer to our previous article "Optimizing the Regulation of Syndicated Loan Business— Interpretation of the Administrative Measures for Syndicated Loan Business (Consultation Draft)"). The final version of the Administrative Measures includes several refinements and enhancements compared to the Consultation Draft, and some of these updates address the concerns we highlighted in our article in March. The key updates include: (1) refining the definition of syndication tranches and segment criteria; (2) enhancing provisions relating to distribution threshold and including distribution thresholds for cases where there is a co-lead arranger and/or sub-lead arranger involved; (3) amending provisions relating to agent banks, with an added exception allowing the borrower's related parties to serve as an agent bank; (4) clarifying requirements relating to syndicated loan charges and authorizing the industry's self-discipline organization to regulate these charges; (5) refining the right of first refusal and the scope of eligible transferees in syndicated loan transfers; and (6) removing the requirements for banks engaged in syndicated loan businesses to report to the NFRA.