In retail banking, how different is a small finance bank compared with payment banks and universal banks?
A small finance bank is comparable to a mainstream bank such as State Bank of India (SBI), from a regulatory and product offering angle.
The major differentiation between payments banks and other banks is that payments banks come with limitations and will largely depend on technology.
In case of small finance banks, from a retail consumer’s angle, we are like any other universal bank. We have all kinds of activities that an SBI can offer for its customers—be it deposits, loans or third-party products such as insurance, mutual funds and pension schemes.
On the loans side, we can do any type of loans—micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) loans; housing loans; corporate lending and retail lending. Being a new bank, we will be focusing on mid- and lower-income segments.
