L&T Finance, Muthoot evince interest for banking licence

Within a day of the RBI issuing the final guidelines for payments banks and small finance banks, L&T Finance and Muthoot Finance today evinced initial interest in applying for such banking licences.

"We are examining that (for both payment and small finance bank) and will then take a decision whether to apply or not," L&T Finance's chairman Y M Deosthalee said today.

L&T Finance will be joining its peers like Muthoot Finance and Shriram Capital, who have also shown interest in applying for banking licence.

"We are surely interested and our board members are studying the new directives of RBI and will undertake a decision on it soon," Muthoot Finance MD George Alexander Muthoot said today.

After the release of the guidelines last evening, Shriram Capital's G S Sundararajan had also said the group will be interested in the small finance bank segment and evaluate the guidelines.

Meanwhile, BSE CEO & MD Ashish Chauhan said, "Currently, we have no such plans. We are not pursuing any banking license as of now."

There were media reports last week that the BSE and its larger rival NSE, which witness transactions of thousands of crore every session, are eyeing setting up of small banks.

The introduction of the two new types of banks is the first step towards having a differentiated banking in the country.

The small finance banks have been designed to serve the marginalised by small lending and accepting deposits, while the payments banks will be for garnering small savings and facilitating remittances.