RBI issues small finance bank licence to Centrum-BharatPe consortium

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a ‘small finance bank’ licence to the Centrum Group-BharatPe consortium, said Centrum Capital on Tuesday.

Former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar will be chairman of the BharatPe board. The consortium will take over the assets and liabilities of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank.

The new SFB has been incorporated as “Unity Small Finance Bank”. Centrum’s MSME and Micro Finance businesses will be merged into “Unity Small Finance Bank”. Rajnish Kumar completed the term as chairman of country’s largest lender SBI in October 2020. At present, Kumar is also working as advisor (resource raising) to Andhra Pradesh government.