A day after applying for a bank licence, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday said the new bank licence norms announced by the Reserve Bank are not discriminatory towards large corporate houses.
“The banking licence guidelines are very clear. They are not discriminatory towards large corporate houses,” Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised by industry body Ficci.
The comments come after Mahindras, another large coporate group, had on Monday said it was keeping itself out of the banking fray as it found the licensing norms too strict for a non-banking finance company like Mahindra Finance. Birla said, “We are very happy the way guidelines are put across.” The Reserve Bank had in February said large industrial and business houses, apart from NBFCs and others, could enter banking arena if they meet the fit and proper criteria set by it.
The AV Birla group company Aditya Birla Nuvo on Tuesday said in an exchange filing that its board had approved a proposal to apply for a bank licence. The RBI is in the process of granting fresh banking licences and has set July 1 as the deadline for applying for the same. Birla also said that the group is not looking for a partner in telecom, which is being run under the Idea brand name.
So far, Anil Ambani Group, Edelweiss group, IIFl, Srei Infra Finance, Travel Finance Corp etc have applied for banking licence, while the Tatas and RIl, lIC, India Post are also expected to enter the fray. Earlier this month, RBI while issuing clarification onnew bank licence guidelines said, the entities getting licences to open new banks will be given 18 months to open branches against 12 months prescribed earlier, and promoters would have to transfer their holdings to the non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) in a stipulated period.
The NOFHC envisages holding of the bank and other regulated financial services entities of the promoters under the NOFHC and prudential exposure norms for the regulated entities.