Several organizations, including UAE Exchange and Financial Services, The Repatriates Cooperative Finance and Development Bank Ltd (REPCO Bank), Chaitanya India Fin Credit Pvt Ltd, and Pankaj Vaish and his associates, had their applications declined.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has turned down requests from three companies, namely Cosmea Financial Holdings, West End Housing Finance, and Akhil Kumar Gupta, to establish small finance banks in the private sector. These entities had applied to the RBI in 2021, following the guidelines for obtaining licenses for small finance banks.
According to a statement by the RBI, after evaluating the applications, it was determined that these three entities were not suitable for receiving in-principle approval to establish small finance banks.
In May of last year, the RBI refused applications from VSoft Technologies Pvt and Calicut City Service Co-operative Bank Ltd to establish small finance banks. In total, the RBI received seven applications for small finance banks under the on-tap licensing guidelines. We are still going through the applications of the last two candidates, Dvara Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services Pvt Ltd and Tally Solutions Private Ltd.
Similarly, in May 2022, the RBI did not grant in-principle approval to four entities that had applied to establish universal banks under the on-tap licensing guidelines. The rejected applicants were UAE Exchange and Financial Services, The Repatriates Cooperative Finance and Development Bank Ltd (REPCO Bank), Chaitanya India Fin Credit Pvt Ltd, and Pankaj Vaish, among others.
In January 2023, the RBI received an application from Annapurna Finance Pvt Ltd, based in Bhubaneswar.