Big promoters like Biyani, Videocon d2h, lose out on payments bank licence in first round

NEW DELHI: Some big names like Future Group promoter Kishore Biyani, Videocon d2h, Oxigen Services, NSE Strategic Investment Corp, and Itz Cash Card could not get Payments Bank licence in the first round.

Out of 41 entities, only 11 emerged successful in the first phase as RBI yesterday allowed to start Payments Bank.

The other prominent entities which lost out in the first phase were M G George Muthoot of Muthoot Group and One MobiKwik Systems Private.

Expressing disappointment over RBI decision of not granting licence, Oxigen Services Chairman & Managing Director Pramod Saxena said, "Oxigen has worked hard and toiled to develop an ecosystem that RBI guidelines prescribed as desirable conditions. We have a track record of payments and remittances that very few can match."

The Nachiket Mor Committee in its report of 2014 recommending setting up of payments bank quoted Oxigen as one of the nested payments bank, he said.

"Oxigen was one of the few to successfully demonstrate Adhaar enabled cash out as part of the 4-month pilot awarded by the RBI. It has therefore come to us as a complete shock to find people or companies, awarded the license who have done very little in the financial inclusion space, the key objective contained in the guideline," he said.

Yesterday, RBI granted 'in-principle' approval to 11 entities, including Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Vodafone and Airtel, to set up payments banks and proposed such licences 'on tap' in future.

The other entities which have been given 'in-principle' approval are Department of Posts, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, Tech Mahindra, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Fino PayTech, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi and PayTM's Vijay Shekhar Sharma.