mumbai four months after giving an inprinciple nod to centrum financial services and bharatpe to establish a small finance bank the rbi on tuesday granted a licence to the consortium that had expressed interest to take over the crisisimpacted punjab and maharashtra cooperative pmc bankin june the reserve bank had given the inprinciple approval for the sfb licence to the consortium against its interest to take over the pmc bank a citybased cooperative lender under restrictions for more than two years after a massive over rs 7000crore fraud at the lenderin a joint statement centrum and bharatpe which are uniting equally to build the sfb said the rbis final approval has been received earlier in the day and this is the first time in six years that the central bank has given a banking licenceearlier in the day bharatpe announced that former sbi veteran rajnish kumar is joining its board as the chairman and will be playing the role of a mentor for the fintechs team on the path to forming an sfbthe new sfb has been incorporated as unity small finance bank and the business model is one of collaboration and open architecture uniting all its stakeholders to deliver a seamless digital experience the statement saidhowever details about how the amalgamation with punjab and maharashtra cooperative pmc bank will happen from an operational perspective were not known immediatelythe statement said centrums msme and microfinance businesses shall be merged into unity small finance bankwe are delighted to receive the licence and excited to partner with bharatpe to create this new age bank with a strong team we aspire to be indias first digital bank centrum groups chairman jaspal bindra saidwe will work tirelessly and smartly to capture this opportunity and build indias first truly digital bank ground up ashneer grover the cofounder and managing director of bharatpe saidwhile granting the inprinciple nod on june 18 the rbi had said that the approval has been accorded in specific pursuance to the centrum financial services february 1 offer expressing interest to take over pmc bank