'Certain NBFCs should be allowed to raise deposits'

Piramal Enterprises Ltd seeks to tap underserved customers in smaller towns to drive growth in its financial services business, and double its assets under management within five years to ₹1.2-1.3 trillion.

- Shayan Ghosh & Satish John

Ajay Piramal, chairman and executive director, Piramal Enterprises, said if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows certain non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to accept public deposits, it will lessen their dependence on bank funding. Edited excerpts:

Would you look at converting into a bank?

Earlier, NBFCs used to have some advantage; there was a little more loosening in terms of RBI control compared to banks. They are tightening up all the processes and, when I see the inspection which the RBI is doing today, it is quite detailed and the arbitrage which you had between NBFCs and banks in terms of regulations is reducing. We are also adapting to that situation by getting more and more of our compliance in line with what RBI wants. Not only that, but we are going one step ahead so that we are best prepared to meet the requirements. We are just making our systems processes and people ready. Let us see what happens.