NPCI looks to add 50 promoters, widen capital base

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today said it plans to bring in 50 more banks as promoters and widen the capital base by nearly Rs 100 crore.
"We are working on expanding the promoter base of the Corporation by adding 50 more banks. We are already on the job and it is likely to be done before the end of the calendar year. We will be raising around Rs 100 crore," NPCI managing director and chief executive A P Hota told reporters.
The funds will be deployed to build infrastructure to support higher number of transactions, construct a new campus, improve R&D and also to launch new products, he said.

The NPCI has 10 core promoter banks -- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC. Each of these banks have invested Rs 10 crore in NPCI.
"We are broad-basing the shareholding pattern because now
it is a national infrastructure and it would not be proper that only 10 banks hold the shares," Hota said.

He said the funds will be raised by fresh issuance of shares to banks and none of the current shareholders will reduce their stake.
The new promoters will invest as per their business volume. For instance, a bank with more than Rs 2 trillion annual business volume will have to chip in with Rs 5 crore, Hota said.

However, the majority stake in the company will be held by public sector banks only, as per the RBI guidelines. So, at any given time public sector banks will have minimum 51 per cent shareholding in the company, Hota said.
NPCI today entered into a strategic partnership with Japanese card issuer JCB International, which will allow the cardholders of the Japanese issuer to transact at all NPCI locations in the country.
Under the tie-up, RuPay-JCB International debit cards will also be issued by the NPCI member banks that would be globally accepted through the JCB network.