The leading depository NSDL will be applying very soon for the final licenses to launch a payments bank. It hopes to roll out the new entity over the next three months.

"We have complied with all the requirements for the final license and will be making the final application for the payments bank very soon," Managing Director and Chief Executive GV Nageswara Rao told PTI.

He said the company will adhere to the February deadline for seeking the final nod from the Reserve Bank and hopes to launch the bank in three months from now.

The new payments bank venture will be a separate entity housed within the 20-year-old securities depository and will be led by an independent team starting with a chief executive, Rao said.

The leadership team has been identified and will be announced shortly, he said, but declined to give any further information about the new venture.

Claiming that NSDL, which successfully introduced the dematerialisation of shares in the country, is the true fountainhead of digitization in the financial world, Rao said the payments bank will continue to leverage the best technology has to offer. Airtel Payments Bank: All You Need To Know

NSDL are one among 11 entities which have been given an in-principle nod by the RBI to start payments banks with an 18-month window to apply for the final nod.

Three have withdrawn from the race midway, while Airtel has already launched its bank. Others, including SBI- RIL and Vodafone, are at various stages of launching or applying for the final nod.

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