The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the setting up of a Standing External Advisory Committee (SEAC), which will evaluate applications for Universal Banks as well as Small Finance Banks (SFBs). The tenure of the SEAC will be for three years. In a release, RBI said that the secretarial support to the committee would be provided by the Department of Regulation, Reserve Bank of India.
The committee, it said, will be headed by MK Jain, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, as the chairperson and will have five members. These five members included Revathy Iyer, Director, Central Board, Reserve Bank of India, Parvathy V Sundaram, former Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India, Hemant G Contractor, former MD, State Bank of India and former Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), and Shri NS Kannan, former MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd.
According to the licensing guidelines, applications for Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks will be initially screened by the Reserve Bank to ensure prima facie eligibility of the applicants. It was also stated that a Standing External Advisory Committee (SEAC) comprising eminent persons with experience in banking, financial sector and other relevant areas, will evaluate the applications thereafter.
Before this, the RBI had announced the composition of the previous SEAC vide press release dated March 22, 2021.