Over a dozen non-banking finance companies, including those from industrial houses like Tatas, Birlas,

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Anil Ambani-led Reliance group and Bajaj Group, are lining up plans to seek banking licences once the Reserve Bank of India comes up with relevant guidelines.

The host of private sector entities which have been eyeing a banking licence include Aditya Birla Group, Tata Capital, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital, Malvinder Singh-led Religare group, Muthoot Group, Bajaj Group and Shriram Finance.

The buzz among the industrial houses and NBFCs for seeking banking licences has been growing ever since Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced last week in his Budget speech that RBI was considering grant of additional bank licenses for growth of banking sector.

While officials at companies like Tata Capital, Bajaj group and Shriram Finance were tight-lipped on the issue saying they would be able to comment only after RBI guidelines were in place, industry sources said that these entities have been vying for a banking licenses for quite some time.

Entities like Aditya Birla Group, Reliance Cap, Muthoot and Religare welcomed the announcement and said that their further line of action would be decided at the right time.

At the same time, the country's top private sector lender ICICI Bank's CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar said that banking was "a very complex business" and it needed to be seen how RBI formulates the procedure for giving additional licenses.