Bank licence hopefuls soar as deadline ends today

The deadline for putting in applications for banking license ends today. Many banking license hopefuls like L&T Financial Holdings and Muthoot Finance were buzzing in trade on Monday, reports CNBC-TV18's Gopika Gopakumar.

There is no clarity on when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will set up a committee for this process. Therefore, it is a long process. As of now around 20 applicants have formally submitted applications for banking license. Also read: Muthoot Finance applies for new banking licence Among them, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Finance Holdings may be a strong contender, it is banking on the back of a strong corporate group and a well diversified shareholding. It is competing against the likes of Sriram Group which is taking advantage for its 30-year legacy. But the biggest challenge for Sriram will be winding up its non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) businesses that has assets under management (AUM) of around Rs 60,000 crore as per the RBI rules. Anil Ambani is also eyeing to set up a Reliance Bank promoted by Reliance Capital and supported by two Japanese firms Nippon Life Insurance and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. Other players are the Singh brothers who are now looking to apply license under Religare Enterprises and Birlas. The Bajaj family has already applied under Bajaj Finserv, but reducing promoter shareholding in Bajaj Finance will be a big challenge for them. Venugopal Dhoot's Videocon and IDFC have also submitted their applications, but for IDFC meeting the priority sector norm will be a big challenge. Magma Fincorp, SREI Finance and public sector undertakings (PSUs) like IFCI and LIC Housing Finance have also submitted their applications. It is expected that individuals might also have applied for a banking license.