Fino Payments looking to upgrade to small finance bank

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Fino Payments Bank is keen to become a small finance bank after having completed five years of operations, Managing Director Rishi Gupta said. The Navi Mumbai-based company is a subsidiary of Fino Paytech, which is backed by marquee investors such as Bharat Petroleum, ICICI Group, Blackstone, IFC, Intel and LIC, among others. The company started operations in July 2017 with 410 branches to become the fourth payments bank after Airtel Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank and Paytm Payments Bank. Fino, which was a remittance service provider, has converted most of its Fino Money Mart outlets into bank branches after getting licence from the Reserve Bank. Also, Fino is the only lender in this space being traded on the exchanges. «From regulatory and compliance perspectives we are eligible for an upgrade to a small finance bank, having completed the mandatory five years of operations. Our board also favours such a conversion and soon we'll be moving an application with the RBI in this regard,» Gupta told PTI.

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On why to stop at small finance bank, and not a full service bank, Gupta said, the company is too small to directly convert to a full service commercial bank from capital and capabilities perspectives. He said, till the upgrade happens, the bank will grow the business with a focus on tie-ups with fintechs under the Fino 2.0 initiative on building digital assets and strengthen the digital offerings. Already, it has tied up with the Sequoia Capital-backed Hubble to offer a spending account, offering customers better value on their lifestyle spends. People can park their funds, spend and save up to 10 per cent on all purchases made from the