Payments company FINO Paytech has raised an additional Rs 149 crore in funding from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and ICICI Lombard General Insurance among other investors. The company had earlier raised Rs 251 crore from oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) for increasing domestic investment. With this, FINO Paytech mentions that reduced its foreign shareholding to below 50% to comply with the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines for a payments bank. The company now awaits a final approval for payments bank from the RBI. According to the RBI’s guidelines, the foreign shareholding in the payments bank would be as per the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for private sector banks. The aggregate foreign investment in a private sector bank from all sources will be allowed upto a maximum of 74% of the paid-up capital of the bank. Other major shareholders in FINO include Intel Capital, The Blackstone Group, ICICI Bank, the IFC and HAV3 Holdings. The transaction is expected to be completed by December 2016. The Blackstone Group holds about 20% while Intel Capital and IFC hold 15% each in FINO Paytech, as indicated by this Economic Times report. Other payments bank players: RBI had permitted 11 entities to start a payments bank and the list is down to eight. Tech Mahindra, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance company and Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi surrendered their payments bank licence last year. Paytm got its payments bank license from the RBI earlier this month, while the department of posts will…
