Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said he hopes that the Reserve Bank of India will give permission to set up payments bank by July-August this year."Our initiative - Post Bank of India, is pending with the RBI and I hope by July-August, the payment bank licence ought to be given by the RBI," the minister told reporters at a press conference here.India Post is one among the applicants to set up a payments bank.The central bank in November issued final guidelines for setting up of 'niche' or payment banks which will cater to needs of small savings accounts, remittance services, low income households, small businesses and other unorganised sector entities.
Under the guidelines, the RBI has invited individuals, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), corporate business correspondents (BCs), mobile telephone companies, super-market chains, and real sector cooperatives to apply for licence to set up payments banks.RBI said an existing joint venture (JV) with a scheduled commercial bank can also set up a payments bank.Many other telecom firms have also applied for payment bank licence, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India among other private companies like Reliance Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited and Future Group.