Mumbai: At least 113 entities have approached the Reserve Bank to seek licences for setting up payment or small finance banks. These entities include top corporates such as RIL, Aditya Birla Group, Airtel, Vodafone and Future Group.
During a bi-monthly monetary policy review, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said, “72 applications for Small Finance Banks and 41 applications for Payments Banks were received up to the deadline for submission yesterday.” Indicating that the final tally may increase, he said “this number excludes applications that might have been received at other venues”.
The governor said the RBI has formed two external committees to evaluate applications received, but did not say how many licences will be issued by the central bank in both the categories. “As stated in the guidelines, two External Advisory Committees (EACs) will evaluate the applications received for setting up of small finance and payments banks and thereafter make their recommendations to the Reserve Bank,” he said.
