Tata, Birla, India Post among 26 applicants for bank licence

Tata Sons, LIC Housing Finance, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Department of Posts, Reliance Capital and Bajaj Finserv are among the 26 private and pubic sector entities which have applied to RBI for grant of bank licences.
"The Reserve Bank of India in all received 26 applications," the central bank said after the deadline for applying for a bank licence expired today.
The RBI had issued guidelines for 'Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector' on February 22 and came out with clarifications in the first week of June.
It is, however, not yet clear how many new bank licences will be issued.

Bandhan Financial Services, Edelweiss Financial Services. IDFC, IFCI, Indiabulls Housing Finance, India Infoline, INMACS Management Services, Janalakshmi Financial Services, J M Financial, and L & T Finance Holdings have also applied.
Magma Fincorp, Muthoot Finance, Religare Enterprises, Shriram Capital, Smart Global Ventures, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Suryamani Financing Company, Tourism Finance Corporation of India, UAE Exchange & Financial Services and Videocon's subsidiary Value Industries are the other applicants.
RBI Governor D Subbarao had earlier said that "our effort will be to make that judgement as transparent as objective as contestable as possible...I want to say that not everybody who is fit and proper will be given a (bank) licence because we expect the number of eligible applicants will be much larger than what is meaningful number of licences we can give".

In its clarification, the RBI had said the entities getting licences to open new banks will be given 18 months to open branches, and promoters would have to transfer their holdings to the non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) in a stipulated period.