Banking licences: Were Tatas hoping to change the rules mid way?

Editor’s note: This is a reader comment we received on the article, ‘ Decoding why running a bank did not make sense for Tata Sons’ published earlier today . As per Firstpost policy, we have lightly edited for grammar and spelling, but the comment has been left as it is.

By Nilesh Desai

[caption id=“attachment_1051985” align=“alignright” width=“380”] Cyrus Mistry. AFP[/caption]

The rules of the( banking) games were defined right at the beginning.. Tatas applied for the license knowing very well about SLR, CRR, Priority sector lending, 25% rural branches etc.. Mahindra Finance understood this from day one and hence did not apply. Did Tatas hope to change the rules mid way? There were many articles long ago pointing out why it doesn’t make sense for large profitable NBFCs to apply for banking license..

My guess is many corporate were hoping for relaxation of above rules for a couple of years, and when they realized RBI is not going to relax any norms, some of them are now backing out.. Wont be surprised if couple of more (like Shriram transport) pull out eventually..