The decision of some of the entities that have been issued in-principle approval to start payments banks to surrender these has not gone down well with the RBI. Deputy governor S.S. Mundra made this clear when he said the RBI does feel a little aggrieved because a lot of effort from the part of the RBI goes in processing these applications. So, having done that, if they do not materialize, there is room for disappointment. Very recently, Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services said they were not interested in establishing a payments bank and hence surrendering the licenses. Earlier, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co too said it would not pursue a payments banking venture even though it had received in-principle approval. At present those entities which are proposing to set up payments banks are Aditya Birla Nuvo, Airtel M Commerce Services, department of posts; FINO PayTech, National Securities Depository, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and Vodafone m-pesa. Mundra added that RBI does not intend to consider applications to replace the ones who have exited.
