Fino Payments Bank has been a designated as a bank in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday. By categorising Fino in the second schedule of the RBI Act, the payments bank now has a scheduled commercial bank status giving it the powers to expand its treasury operations and access to liquidity windows. Fino is one of the only successful payments banks in the country, having broken even in the first-half of this fiscal while other payment banks continue to report losses. For the June to September 2020 quarter, the bank posted its second consecutive net profit at Rs 1.9 crore compared to a net loss of Rs 10.9 crore during the same period a year ago. It posted its first net profit of Rs 1.3 crore in the January to March quarter of 2020. The commercial bank status effectively gives Fino access to government business, it can become a member of a clearing house, in addition to the RBI's liquidity window The bank says that with a scheduled commercial bank status, it will be better positioned to grab some government business services, related to pensions, provident funds and various welfare schemes under direct benefit transfer (DBT). The company plans to process Rs 60,000 crore worth of transactions in the first half of the next fiscal year, up by 36% from Rs 44 000 crore during the same period last fiscal. As of March 2020, Fino PB…
