‘NSDL payment bank to open in a month’

The National Securities Depository Ltd. is awaiting RBI approval to begin its payment bank operations, said G.V. Nageswara Rao, MD and CEO of NSDL.

The central bank, which has already issued licence for the payment bank, is now required to clear an application permitting operations, he told presspersons at the unveiling of Kotak Securities’ Free Intraday Trading scheme in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

He said he expected the operations to begin within a month and added that the payment bank would be focussed on promoting digital payments.

NSDL, which handles most of the securities held and settled in dematerialised form in the capital market of the country, had been associated with the National Academic Depository (NAD), an initiative of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development, since last year.

It has stored 50 lakh school and college certificates of about 40 universities as well as the CBSE, in digital form. He said the government was likely to make it mandatory for all universities and school boards to be part of NAD in a few years.

According to the Ministry, the initiative is to facilitate digital issuance, storage, access and verification of academic awards issued by academic institutions.