In effect, Centurion Bank and TimesBank will be left with no choice but to enter the market this fiscal, even though they have been planning to defer the issue. Both Centurion Bank as well TimesBank have formally moved the RBI with the proposal of deferring the issue. "We cannot allow them to defer the issue. Already we have given the new private banks enough time since the market conditions have not been conducive for new issues. The licensing norms will have to be adhered to," the official said.

Centurion Bank, which had announced in August this year that it would take over the "operating business" of its promoter, 20th CenturyFinance Corporation (TCFC), has been weighing the option of entering the market in the next fiscal. The bank wanted the whole takeover exercise to be completed before it could go public.

The bank proposes to take over Rs 500 crore worth of leased assets from its parent -- most of which is sticky in nature -- on a net worth of just Rs 131 crore. The bank also intends to take over TCFC's Rs 300 crore fixed deposit base, the cost of which is well over 14 per cent, which would thereby severely squeeze its spreads.

TimesBank is yet to work out even the base size of the issue. It has, for some time now, been in hectic parleys with a number of foreign banks to offload a portion of its equity in the latter's favour. However, it has not yet been able to find a suitor owing to differences over the pricing of the shares.

IDBI Bank's IPO -- which will have a core size of Rs 40 crore -- is slated to hit the market during the last quarter of the current financial year. The bank proposes to make a fresh issue of 4crore equity shares of Rs 10 each. However, it is yet to finalise the premium it will charge on the shares.

UTI Bank's Rs 74.50 crore maiden public issue, which opened to the public on September 21, is expected to be successful, backed largely by UTI's marketing strength. The issue will close on September 28. While HDFC Bank, Global Trust Bank and Bank of Punjab accessed the market with at-par public issues, ICICI Bank was the first new private-sector bank to enter the market with a premium issue in 1997-98, followed by IndusInd Bank. While the ICICI Bank scrip has been quoting marginally higher than its issue price, the IndusInd scrip has been consistently quoting below its issue price of Rs 45.