Small finance banks seek relaxed norms to meet financial inclusion goals

Unlike universal banks, SFBs require prior approval from RBI for opening bank branches

With the small finance banks (SFBs) scrambling to find unbanked areas on account of the Reserve Bank of India proposing to widen the definition of banking outlets by including banking correspondents in it, SFBs have asked RBI for relaxations of norms. 

SFBs have proposed that once an unbanked area is identified, RBI should be notified about it, and later if any bank opens an outlet through a banking correspondent (BC) or otherwise in the area, it should be counted as a branch in an unbanked area for the SFB, said a spokesperson of a small finance bank. 

While SFBs require