IDBI Bank may pick up stake in NSDL’s payments bank arm

IDBI Bank may pick up a stake in the payments bank that National Securities Depository will float, according to a top official.

NSDL was one of the 11 entities granted “in-principle” approval in August 2015 from the Reserve Bank of India to set up a payments bank.

IDBI Bank owns 30 per cent stake in NSDL, a securities depository, which handles the securities held and settled in dematerialised form in the Indian capital market. Kishor Kharat, MD & CEO, IDBI Bank, said his bank is in talks with NSDL over the possibility of a strategic alliance, including picking up a stake.

Increasingly, mainstream banks are evincing interest in picking up stakes in payments banks.

Last month, Kotak Mahindra Bank said it signed an agreement with Airtel M Commerce Services (AMSL) and Bharti Airtel to acquire 19.90 per cent stake (9.83 crore equity shares) in AMSL at ₹98.38 crore. Last year, Reliance Industries, which has received ‘in-principle’ approval from the RBI to start a payments bank, roped in State Bank of India as a joint venture partner with equity investment of up to 30 per cent in the proposed bank.

The objectives of setting up payments banks will be to further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments/remittance services to migrant labour and low-income households.