MUMBAI: Fino Paytech – an entity which had received in-principle licence from the RBI to start a payments bank – has completed its last round of fund-raising, bringing down foreign shareholding to 49% – a key requisite to apply for the final licence as mandated by the banking regulator.
“We have completed raising ₹400 crore and with this the foreign shareholding has come own to 49 per cent. We have applied to RBI for the final licence today (Wednesday),” Rishi Gupta, MD and CEO of Fino Paytech told The Hindu . Fino Paytech will 100 per cent in the proposed Fino Payments Bank.
Foreign shareholding in the company was about 80 per cent when it received the in-principle approval. RBI had granted such approvals to 11 entities but three of them backed out. Of the remaining, only Paytm and Airtel M Commerce have received the final approval.
Following the fresh round of fund-raising, which is ₹149 crore, ICICI Prudential and ICICI Lombard together will have 15 per cent stake in Fino Paytech. Earlier, oil marketing company BPCL had bought 21 per cent stake for ₹250 crore. The other domestic shareholders are small investors as well as public sector entities such as Life Insurance Corporation of India.
“We will take a couple of months from the time we get the final approval to launch the bank,” Mr. Gupta said, adding that the RBI had indicated them to obtain the final approval within 18 months of the in-principle one, which was granted in September 2015. (End)
