Raghuram Rajan opposes issuing of licence to corporate houses

Reserve Bank of India has started issuing Banking licences to the foreign banks and corporate houses to start operating banking operations in the country but former IMF chief economist and honorary advisor to PM, Mr. Raghuram Rajan has opposed the idea.

"I think the old RBI policy of not allowing corporates banking licence was good one. I still stand by that. Whether it will continue with this or not is a different question," he said.

He stressed on giving preference to the NFBCs and MFIs over corporate houses. He said "If corporates are given licence, the regulator needs to ensure there is no inter-company lending, proper risk management processes are followed and there is enough transparency."

Ratnakar Bank has entered in to an agreement with the AGS Transact Technologies. According to the agreement AGS technologies will install ATMs for the lender and will also provide with technology based solutions for banking, retail, petroleum and postal sector.

The Head of Ratnakar Bank (Direct Banking Channels) Mr. Ritesh Rai said "The ATM deployment is a part of our plan towards aggressive expansion in the country. We have been looking for a strategic partner to help us with this objective. AGS' expertise in ATM management will help us in gaining a strong foothold and increasing our network."

President and CEO of AGS Transact technologies Mr. Sunil Udupa said "We have been servicing 10,000-plus ATMs through our state-of-art 24X7 command center that gives confidence to our customers. With this, we believe we can add great value to the bank's initiatives."

The National Payment Corporation (NPCL) has partnered with three banks and has launched Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) Project. The project is aimed to make banking process easier for the poor and less educated population in the country. The Business Correspondents have a major role to play in the implementation of the project.

Under this project, the customers will be able to withdraw or deposit cash, make balance enquires and they will also be able to transfer funds through Business Correspondents by using their UIDs

NPCL defines this facility as "a bank-led model, enabling online financial inclusion transaction at PoS or point of sale, or the MicroATM, through Business Correspondent (BC) of one bank for customers of another using Aadhar Authentication."

Through this project NPCL will give a boost to the Financial Inclusion Plan as it will make easy to access their account for the no-frills account holders in the remote areas of the country.

The project is made functional in various districts of Jharkhand, where UIDs have been allotted. The three banks that are involved with this project are ICICI Bank , Union Bank of India and Bank of India.