RBI, small fin banks licensees discuss regulatory concerns

The newly appointed deputy governor N S Vishwanathan today met the entities that have received in-principle approval for setting up small finance banks and discussed their concerns over the regulatory requirements.
"They have been given in-principle approvals subject to their meeting certain conditions to become small finance banks. We reviewed what they are doing as part of this journey to meet those requirements and also what would be the regulatory framework. Whatever clarifications they wanted, I gave them," RBI's newly appointed deputy governor N S Vishwanathan told reporters here after meeting the entities.
However, he did not give further clarifications on the discussion.

In September last year, the RBI had given in-principle approval to 10 entities for setting up small finance banks. The 10 entities included Au Financiers, Capital Local Area Bank, Disha Microfin, Equitas Holdings, ESAF Microfinance and Investments, Janalakshmi Financial Services, RGVN (North East) Microfinance, Suryoday Micro Finance, Ujjivan Financial Services, Utkarsh Micro Finance.
So far, only one entity Capital Small Finance Bank has started operations.
Recently, the Reserve Bank has given final approval to Equitas Holdings to launch a small finance bank.
The Chennai-based ESAF Microfinance has applied for the final approval to Reserve Bank.