Bigger players such as Reliance Jio and Airtel have already announced tie-ups with State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank, respectively.
Most payments bank applicants are likely to launch operations only as a joint venture with commercial banks. While Payworld, a leading transaction service provider, is in talks with banks like ICICI Bank and YES Bank, Oxigen, another payment solutions provider, already has an agreement with Ratnakar Bank to jointly launch the payment bank operations.
Bigger players such as Reliance Jio and Airtel have already announced tie-ups with State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank, respectively.
Promod Saxena, chairman and managing director, Oxigen said, "We already have an agreement with Ratnakar Bank to dilute about 15% to 30% of our equity as and when we get our licence." The company undertakes Rs 600 crore worth of banking remittances a month and about Rs 1,000 crore of cash transfers in a day. The company now intends to expand its customer service points from 130,000 to 300,000.
Praveen Dhabhai, chief operating officer of Payworld, told dna, "We would prefer to launch operations jointly with a commercial bank and we are in talks with a few banks but we are yet to finalise anything. Payworld is already a business correspondent to ICICI Bank and YES Bank and it has 11,000 business correspondent outlets which in turn are linked to a cluster of villages." The company already has a prepaid instrument (PPI licence).
Smart Paisa, the digital wallet by Payworld, is targeting the 41% unbanked population to use the digital wallet through an assisted model where a retailer helps the consumer to understand how a digital wallet works and assist them to use it. The company does about Rs 3 to 4 crore worth digital cash transfers in a day through 10,000 transactions.
About 41% of the population in India is unbanked out of which 40% is unbanked in urban areas and 61% is unbanked in rural areas, according to a RBI report. The rate is higher in northeastern (63%) and eastern regions (59%).
As the digital commerce grew in India through the first decade of this century, RBI acted on defining how the payment services will evolve. Due to strict know your customer (KYC) and anti money laundering regulations, India has a limited peer to peer money transfer activity.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}