RBI Gives Licence For 11 Payments Banks Wednesday Aug 19,2015

 

Paving the way for revolutionising cashless payments services in the country, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Wednesday Aug 19,2015 granted payment bank licences to 11 firms. 

This includes telecom companies Vodafone and Airtel; non-banking financial company Cholamandalam Distribution Services Ltd; large conglomerates Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla Nuvo; and individuals Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, and Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director of Sun Pharmaceuticals.

The Department of Posts, Fino Paytech, Tech Mahindra and National Securities Depository Ltd also made the cut. 

The 11 companies have been given 18 months to comply with all the conditions laid out by the RBI, most of them have already put in place a robust roll-out plan.

Of the 41 entities that applied for a licence, the prominent names that did not make it in this round include Future Group Founder Kishore Biyani, Videocon d2h and MG George Muthoot.

Note

 

 

The Payments Bank will be set up as a differentiated bank and shall confine its activities to acceptance of demand deposits, remittance services, Internet banking and other specified services

Payments Banks will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer. They will be allowed to issue ATM/debit cards as also other prepaid payment instruments, but not the credit cards. These banks can also distribute non-risk sharing simple financial products like mutual funds and insurance products.
They will not be allowed to undertake lending services and non resident Indians will not be allowed to open accounts

Commercial banks comprise 27 public sector banks, 20 private, 44 foreign, 4 local area banks and 56 regional rural banks.