Will 2021 be the breakout year for neo-banks? 6 hours ago Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) liberalised a few restrictions imposed on pre-paid instruments (PPI) and payment bank players, signalling that the central bank views these companies with greater respect when it comes to handling people’s money. With the widespread usage of digital wallets and the numerous services offered by fintech payment players within an app, the RBI has decided to give these new banking models more room to grow. The central bank has now allowed digital wallet companies and payment banks to compete with traditional banks for deposits and payments services for a specific market segment. While the adoption of non-bank payments services has largely been driven by a handful of entities in the last few years, banks still have a monopoly on the customer experience when it comes to lending and other services. However, given the success and demand for digital services post-Covid, the regulator and the banks see the benefits of further intermediation between the ownership of assets/liabilities from the customer experience.