Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget speech on Friday brought closer to reality, billionaire industrialist Anil Ambani’s dream of entering the banking sector.
In his speech, Mukherjee announced that the RBI was considering to give banking licences to some private sector players and “Non Banking Financial Companies could also be considered, if they meet the RBI’s eligibility criteria.”
Besides Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, many other private sector groups and NBFCs, such as Aditya Birla Group and Malvinder Singh-led Religare group, have been eyeing a banking licence and these entities welcomed today’s announcement.
For Anil Ambani group in particular, entering the banking space has been a long-standing dream and the same has been stated quite a few times by the group Chairman and other officials of the group.
“We welcome the announcement that the RBI is considering the grant of banking licenses to new private players and NBFCs,” said Sam Ghosh, CEO of Anil Ambani group’s financial services arm Reliance Capital.
“This move will potentially open exciting new avenues of growth for Reliance Capital in the future. We await further details and guidelines,” Ghosh added.
At the beginning of this year, Ghosh had said that the group’s foremost hope for the new year would be change in regulatory framework to allow new private players in banking sector.
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