ECB compliance responsibility: borrower must ensure adherence to ECB guidelines or face FEMA penal action. Primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) guidelines rests with the borrower concerned; borrowers must not use trade credits or other transactions to disguise or circumvent ECB rules, and structures that contravene the Foreign Exchange Management (Borrowing and Lending in Foreign Exchange) Regulations, 2018 or other ECB provisions may invite penal action under FEMA.