Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank, a joint venture between Aditya Birla Nuvo and telecom operator Idea Cellular receives the final licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up payments bank in the country. It’s the seventh entity to receive the final nod from the central bank to start the Payments bank.
Among the Payments Bank licence holders, only two of them has started operation. This includes the Airtel Payments Bank and India Post Payments Bank. Paytm which also received the final node from RBI last month, but still trailing behind in launching the Payments bank.
For those who are new to Payments Bank, the RBI back in 2015 granted Payments Bank license to eleven entities including Aditya Birla Group. Payments Bank operate as a differentiated bank, which can accept deposits up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per account. This type of banks can offer remittance services, internet banking, debit cards, online payments, bill payments and other specific services. But they can’t offer money lending services like loans. The main purpose of this type banks is to serve certain niche interests, remittance needs of small businesses, unorganised sector, low-income households, farmers etc.
Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank is a 51:49 joint venture between Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and Idea Cellular. The company aims to launch the Payments bank service by the first half of 2017. Last week RBI granted a final licence to Fino Pay Tech Ltd and National Securities Depository Ltd.