Financials | Sector Update
Sector Update | 16 September 2015
Financials
RBI grants licenses to new niche category of banks “Small finance banks”
A big leap towards financial inclusion | MFIs takes it all
List of successful applicants
Au Financiers Ltd.
Capital Local Area Bank
Ltd.
Disha Microfin Pvt. Ltd.
Equitas Holdings Pvt. Ltd.
ESAF Microfinance and
Investments Pvt. Ltd.
Janalakshmi Financial
Services Pvt. Ltd.
RGVN (North East)
Microfinance Ltd
Suryoday Micro Finance
Pvt. Ltd.
Ujjivan Financial Services
Pvt. Ltd.
Utkarsh Micro Finance Pvt.
Ltd.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted “in-principle” approval for setting up
small finance banks to 10 entities of the 72 applicants. Of the 10 shortlisted
candidates, eight are micro finance institutions (MFIs), one commercial vehicle
financier and one local area bank.
These applicants have been selected post screening by three committees. The key
selection criteria were the ability to raise the minimum initial capital required and the
status of ownership and control by residents. Also, one of the important factors
proposed was reach into unbanked areas and underserved sections of the population.
The screening committees did a thorough scrutiny, which involved assessment of
financial soundness, proposed business plan, fit and proper status based on due
diligence reports received from the regulators, investigative agencies, banks, etc.
The objectives of setting up of small finance banks will be for furthering financial
inclusion by (i) provision of savings vehicles primarily to unserved and underserved
sections of the population, and (ii) supply of credit to small business units; small and
marginal farmers; micro and small industries; and other unorganized sector entities,
through high technology-low cost operations.
Key Surprise:
One of the key objectives of RBI for granting the small bank license was
reach into unbanked areas and underserved sections of the population. While keeping
that in mind, RBI has granted license to 8 MFIs however the largest MFI (After
Bandhan converted into bank) SKS has not been able to get license. In our view lack of
identifiable promoter could be the reason.
Interestingly, the successful applicants are very well spread across the country with
virtually no geographical overlap. With 3 license applicants are from north India (AU
Rajasthan, Capital local bank- Punjab and Utkarsh from UP) 2 from west India (Disha
micro finance- Gujarat and Suryoday, Maharashtra) One from east India RGVN, Assam
and 4 from south India Janalakshmi and Ujjivan, Karnataka; Equitas, Tamil Nadu and
ESAF, Kerala.
Among our coverage universe only DHFL has applied and it could not obtain- we don’t
see it impacting the company in any manner; as it is a well-established player in the
housing finance space. Some of the other key entities / individuals which failed to
obtain license are IIFL Holdings, Repco Micro finance, VAYA Finserv Private (Promoted
by Dr. Vikram Akula), Mr. Manish Khera - Former MD Fino, Mr. V.Balakrishnan-
Former Infosys CFO, Mr. Collin R Timms - Founder Gurdian Bank Kenya, Mr. K Cherian
Varghese - Former CMD Union Bank.
Going forward, the RBI intends to use the learning from this licensing round to
appropriately revise the guidelines and move towards issuing licenses more regularly,
that is, virtually “on tap” licensing.
In our view,
this is a giant leap towards financial inclusion; as these small banks will be
able to serve the under-served within the ambit of stable regulatory framework.
Moreover, in due course, these applicants would be considered for universal banking
license if they are successfully able to build a profitable business model and achieve
the desired objectives.
Sunesh Khanna
(Sunesh.Khanna@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5521
Alpesh Mehta
(Alpesh.Mehta@MotilalOswal.com) /
Harshvardhan Agrawal
(Harshvardhan.Agrawal@motilalOswal.com)
16 September 2015
to refer through disclosures made at the end of the Research Report.
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