Bank of India keen to collaborate with payments banks

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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State-run Bank of India is keen to collaborate with upcoming payments banks as it feels such an association will be beneficial, its Non-executive Chairman G Padmanabhan said here today.

"As far as my bank is concerned, we are looking at the opportunity to collaborate with payments and move forward," Padmanabhan, a former RBI executive director, said at a Payment Council of India event.

He also sought to downplay banks' concerns regarding the entry of such entities, instead listed out the advantages of partnering with them.

As the payments banks have a cap of Rs 1 lakh on deposits, the excess money can be sweeped into a universal bank, he said.

Padmanabhan also said the payments banks will be good sources of loan origination to help banks' credit growth as they cannot lend by themselves.

The Reserve Bank had given in-principle nod to 11 applicants to start payment banks in August 2015 and given a 18-month period to operationalise them, which ends next March.

However, three of the licencees, including Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi and the Cholamandalam group have opted out, while the remaining entities PayTM, Birlas, Reliance Industries, Airtel and Fino among others are yet to begin operations.

Among all only Airtel has got the final approval from the RBI so far.

Some lenders like State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank have partnered with Reliance Industries and Airtel, respectively, to take equity stakes in these lenders, while largest private sector ICICI Bank has already picked up stakes in two of the successful applicants.

According to the industry watchers, the payments banks are currently in the phase of tie-ups with lenders for exploiting the fee-based opportunities by cross-selling. PTI AA HV BEN NRB .