Reliance Capital fully-prepared for banking foray: CEO

"We are ready. We have been working on this for quite some time... for about one and half years," Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh said.

Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, has been one of the major aspirants of the new banking licences to be granted by the Reserve Bank.

While the process of granting new banking licences have been underway for quite some time, the government has recently indicated that a framework could be put in place soon for allowing new players in this business.

The RBI had issued draft guidelines in August 2011 for issuance of new banking licences, while in July 2012 it released the comments and suggestions received by it.

Asked about the group's banking aspirations, Ghosh said that final regulatory framework is yet to come on this front, but Reliance Capital was certainly fully prepared on its part.

"We are ready to the extent of the current scenario and once the final guidelines come up, we will be in a better position to understand the situation," he said.

Asked whether it would be good to have new banks, Ghosh said that the country has an estimated 200 million bank accounts, while there are about 600 million mobile customers.

"So, there is clearly a big gap and there is a need to take banking to a larger number

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