MUMBAI, July 10: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today debarred Hyderabad-based non-banking finance company, Asia Pacific Investment Trust Limited from accepting fresh deposits and also prohibited the company from selling or mortgaging any of its assets.

Exercising its powers vested with it under the RBI Act, the central bank said the company cannot accept deposits in any form, whether by way of fresh deposits or renewals or otherwise with immediate effect. ``The company has been directed not to sell or transfer or mortgage any of its assets, except for the purpose of repayment of its deposits on maturity, without prior permission of the RBI for a period of six months,'' the RBI said.

In the meantime, it is learnt that RBI is planning to offer "graded freedom" of operations to the non-banking finance companies (NBFC) on the basis of their ratings. It has also decided to introduce the banking supervisory model for the large NBFCs with an asset base of Rs 500 crore and above. At least seven NBFCs will be subjected to the new model of supervision. They are Kotak Mahindra, GE Caps, Apple Finance, 20th Century Finance, Alpic, Sundaram Finance and Cholamandalam Finance.

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