ICICI Bank is partnering with FINO PayTech in the latter’s bid to establish a payments bank. Rishi Gupta, MD and CEO of FINO PayTech, said ICICI Bank is now a partner bank for the company’s payments bank foray. The company is now working to identify the areas where the two entities will work together for building up avenues, he said. The ICICI Group has 16% stake in FINO Paytech, which was set up as a business correspondent. RBI regulations allow universal banks to invest up 30% in payments bank. RBI regulations also stipulate that 51% of the equity of payments bank should be with domestic entities. However, in the case of FINO PayTech, about 70 per cent stake is with foreign entities. Gupta said the company may raise capital in order to bring down the foreign holding. Among its foreign stakeholders are Blackstone (20%), Intel Capital, Headland Capital Partners and World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) (all 15% each).
