Bandhan set to get final approval from RBI

Bandhan had submitted the final application to RBI in the middle of January this year. 

The company is set to start its banking operations in the last week of August, more than a month before the October 2nd deadline. On April 2, 2014, RBI had granted an in-principle approval to Bandhan and IDFC to set up a bank. The approval is valid for 18 months and Bandhan is required to commence its banking operations before the 18-month period expires. 

Ghosh is set to address the media later in the day.

The Bandhan chief had earlier shared his launch plans with Business Standard wherein he had laid out the ambitious target of opening 600 branches at a go. As a bank, Bandhan plans to focus on retail clients and will not focus on corporate clients for lending. With a strong rural presence, the bank already has a substantial customer base and it plans to build on it instead of chasing corporates.

To help in the transformation journey Bandhan had roped in Deloitte as an advisor, Aon Hewitt to design and implement a compensation strategy for its workforce, FIS as its technology partner and Ogilvy & Mather for its brand building exercise. 

IDFC, the other institution that received an in-principle approval from RBI from amongst the 25 applicants for the banking licence, is planning to do a soft launch of the bank from this month onwards. It intends to begin the full-fledged operations with 20 branches from October.