Small finance banks: Who are the two new applicants?

The RBI released guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector, on August 1, 2016, and December 5, 2019, respectively.

On August 30, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has received two more applications for small finance bank permits. These are Tally Solutions and Cosmea Financial Holdings.

Bangalore-based Tally Solutions Private Limited is over a three-decade-old business software company helping small and medium businesses with accounting automation. Its product caters to over multiple industries across 100 countries.

Tally Solutions was established by Bharat Goenka, Current Vice Chairperson in 1996 and currently Sheela Goenka is the Chairperson of the company. Currently, the firm is being headed by Tejas Goenka. It reported revenue of Rs 500 crore and a net profit of Rs 86 crore in 2018-19.

Cosmea Financial Holdings Private Limited was incorporated on November 24, 2020. Data from Tofler reveals there are two directors in the company and no reported key management personnel.

Soumen Ghosh was appointed as a director on November 28, 2020, and Suresh Thiruvanathapuram Viswanathan was appointed as the director on December 09, 2020.

Soumen Ghosh has also been a director with Bharti Enterprises Limited, Reliance Commercial Finance Pvt Limited, Torus Alternative Investment Fund Private Limited, as per data from Tofler, a business intelligence platform.

The RBI released guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks in the Private Sector, on August 1, 2016, and December 5, 2019, respectively. The RBI, on April 15, had released the names of applicants under the guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks in the private sector.

In that round, applicants under Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Universal Banks included UAE Exchange and Financial Services Limited, The Repatriates Cooperative Finance and Development Bank Limited (REPCO Bank), Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited, Shri Pankaj Vaish and others, the RBI said.