In this report, we review a new type of bank, a variation of the universal bank, called the Small Finance Bank (SFB which was introduced in 2015 with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI issuing in-principle approvals to ten financial services providers. SFBs are authorised to perform all the banking functions – payments, accepting deposits and lending. This makes them functionally identical to universal banks. However, given the SFBs’ financial inclusion focus, there are essential differences brought about by the business-model-level regulatory prescriptions of the RBI. The requirement for fulfilling priority sector lending is higher for SFBs – at 75% of its Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) compared to the 40% for the universal banks. Also, to benefit small borrowers, SFBs have a restriction on their loan portfolio that requires 50% of the portfolio to be comprised of loans and advances of up to Rs. 25 lakhs. Additionally, there are some differences in prudential requirements as well for SFBs. The minimum paid-up equity capital for SFBs is Rs. 100 Cr, one-fifth of the requirement for universal banks. The minimum capital requirement for SFBs is set at 15%, higher than the 9% prescribed for universal banks.
Read the full report here.
