RBI GRANTS "PAYMENT BANK" LICENCE IN PRINCIPLE TO DEPARTMENT OF POSTS(DoP) The Reserve Bank on Wednesday granted ‘in-principle’ approval to 11 entities, including Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Vodafone and Airtel, to set up payments banks and proposed such licences ‘on tap’ in future. The other entities which have been given ‘in-principle’ approval are Department of Posts, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, Tech Mahindra, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Fino PayTech, Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi and PayTM’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma. “The ‘in-principle’ approval granted will be valid for a period of 18 months, during which time the applicants have to comply with the requirements under the guidelines and fulfil the other conditions as may be stipulated by the Reserve Bank,” RBI said in a statement. Going forward, RBI said the central bank would use the learning from this licensing round to appropriately revise the guidelines and