Banking law amendment bill will be presented in the current session of parliament, and there are likely chances for it to be passed. The passage of bill will pave the way for RBI to issue much awaited new bank licenses. RBI has been very selective in issuing new banking licenses, evident from the fact that it issued 12 new bank licenses in the last two decades. The guidelines do not specify the number of licenses but given the past record and the RBI's cautious approach, we believe a maximum of three or four licenses would be granted.

However, considering that RBI would issue only a handful of licenses and given that there are a large number of hopefuls, the competition for new banking licenses would be very intense.

Click on the next slide to find out broking firm Antique’s top six contenders for banking license...their strengths and weaknesses.