Au Financiers hopes to launch small finance bank by April

Au Financiers, one of the 10 in-principle licensees of small finance banks, is expecting the final approval from Reserve Bank by December and to launch operations by April.
The Jaipur-based non-banking finance company had applied to the RBI on September 12 seeking final approval.
"After complying with all the stipulations, we had applied to RBI on September 12 and are awaiting for final approval, which takes typically three months," Au Financiers India's business banking chief Priyam Alok said here on the sidelines of an event hosted by the Payment Council of India.
"By February, we would be ready and in April we will be launching operations, and hope to have 325 branches at the launch," he added.

Alok said branches will be in the same locations where the company already has presence, but albeit in new premises.
The NBFC has presence in the North, West and Central regions and it will have branches in these geographies initially, he added.
Last September, the Reserve Bank had given in-principle approvals to 10 applicants to set up small finance banks, which also included Ujjivan, Equitas Holdings, Capital Local Area Bank, Disha Microfin, Esaf Microfinance, Janalakshmi, RGVN North East Microfinance, Suryoday Microfinance and Utkarsh Microfinance.
So far, Capital Small Finance Bank and Equitas Holdings have started operations, while the Chennai-based Esaf Microfinance has applied for the final approval.