‘Will help economy move into cashless mode’

Companies which bagged the payments banks licence believe that the move will help consumers migrate to a cashless economy. Here are the reactions of some of those who bagged the licence and of other stakeholders:

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecommunications and IT Minister : “I am very happy to learn that the Postal Department has been given payments banking permission by the RBI. I thank the RBI Governor and his team. I have been trying since I became the minister to energise and make the vast network of Postal Department for financial digital inclusion and e-commerce activity. I would expect the Postal Department to prepare itself properly and effectively for this.”

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, SBI : “We are pleased to note that RBI has granted payments bank licence to Reliance Industries in which SBI has proposed a 30 per cent stake. This partnership brings together the combined strengths of two of India’s Fortune 500 corporations committed to making a transformative impact on India’s financial inclusion landscape. We see this licence as an opportunity to promote financial inclusion by providing banking and transaction services to unbanked, under-banked and small businesses.”

CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra : “We have 18 months time (for the roll out). We are technologically ready. We are confident of launching it much earlier. We have strong relationship with Mahindra Finance. We will definitely have a tie up with them.”

 Sunil Sood, MD & CEO, Vodafone India : “With over 90,000 ‘M-Pesa’ agents, we are already providing people in remote areas a convenient way to transfer money and make payments in a safe and secure manner… The payments bank licence will enable us to build on this further and offer a more comprehensive portfolio of banking and financial products and services, accelerating India’s journey into a cashless economy.”

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm : “This is indeed a great moment for us. We have managed to significantly reduce the cash usage in the economy. With this nod from the RBI we will be able to further drive our overall commitment to financial inclusion for the unbanked segment, modernise payment systems and build more trust for our services.” Rajeev Arora, Director, FINO PayTech : “We have been focused on micro customers… The mandate now is to create an effective payment ecosystem and we propose to build that on the current network and also collaborate with other players on the retail front.”

Vellayan Subbiah, MD, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance : “Chola currently has over 534 branches spread across the country and a captive base of over 7.5 lakh customers, which is an immediate opportunity that can be tapped into. The larger Murugappa group eco-system offers an even larger base of rural customers and this is a definite plus for us.”

Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank : “It will take at least six-odd months to get our strategy in terms of technology and infrastructure in place. Payments bank is a different product market from the current way in which our bank operates. So, I don’t think the overlap is much.”

(With inputs from Delhi and Hyderabad Bureaus)