The new bank licenses will be issued in a few weeks after a securing permission from the Election Commission, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said. He said the RBI is keen on the Election Commission approval before the licenses are issued. Rajan was addressing a press conference, along with finance minister P Chidambaram. Some 25 aspirants from both the private and public sectors, including financial services institutions and corporate entities, have applied for the new licenses. These include Reliance Capital, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Shriram Finance, Religare, L&T Finance, IDFC and India Post. A committee headed by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan had examined the applications and submitted its report on the eligibility of the applicants. IDFC, the Mumbai-based NBFC, L&T Finance, LIC Housing and Southbased NGO Janalakshmi are considered strong candidates to win bank licences.
