“Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector”

The Reserve Bank of India released on 5th December 2019 on its website, “Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector”.

Major changes from the earlier Guidelines on Small Finance Banks dated November 27, 2014, are:

(i) The licensing window will be open on-tap;

(ii) minimum paid-up voting equity capital / net worth requirement shall be ₹ 200 crore;

(iii) for Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs), desirous of voluntarily transiting into Small Finance Banks (SFBs) initial requirement of net worth shall be at ₹ 100 crore, which will have to be increased to ₹ 200 crore within five years from the date of commencement of business. Incidentally, the net-worth of all SFBs currently in operation is in excess of ₹ 200 crore;

(iv) SFBs will be given scheduled bank status immediately upon commencement of operations;

(v) SFBs will have general permission to open banking outlets from the date of commencement of operations;

(vi) Payments Banks can apply for conversion into SFB after five years of operations, if they are otherwise eligible as per these guidelines.

In the Second Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2019-20 dated June 06, 2019, it was announced that the Draft Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of such banks will be issued. Accordingly, the draft guidelines were published on the RBI website on September 13, 2019 inviting comments from the stakeholders and members of the public. Taking into consideration the responses received, the final guidelines have now been issued.

Please click on the following link for the Full Guidelines on On Tap Licensing of Small Finance Banks :- Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector

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