A few top Indian companies including Reliance Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited and Future Group Monday applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for payments bank licences.
Reliance Industries has roped in the State Bank of India (SBI) as an active equity partner as it seeks a licence to extend affordable banking and payments solutions in the country assisted with access to 15,869 branches and vast network of India’s largest commercial bank.
Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (ABNL), promoter and largest shareholder of Idea Cellular, also applied for Payments Bank licence with the RBI, a filing in the Bombay Stock Exchange by the companies said.
The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group also Monday applied for a payments bank licence with the RBI, the banking entity would be called NuFuture Payments Bank.
Last week, Bharti Airtel announced it was teaming up with Kotak Mahindra Bank to apply for payments bank.
The RBI issued guidelines for licensing of payments bank Nov 27, 2014. The apex bank earlier extended the last of submission of applications for licence of payments banks to Feb 2.
A payments bank, as defined by the Reserve Bank’s draft rules, can accept deposits, both savings and current, up to a maximum of Rs.10,000 initially, with the stated primary role of extending payments and remittance services to small businesses and low-income households.
Besides, physical branches, some key facilitators for such services can include ATMs, mobile and internet banking, authorised business correspondents and point-of-sale terminal locations, as in retail stores.
