Mumbai, July 1: The Big Boys of India Inc have tossed their hats into the ring, vying for a handful of coveted banking licences that are likely to be farmed out later this year.

It’s a dazzling roll call: the Tatas, the Birlas, the Ambanis, and the Bajajs are all in that deep scrum for the first time since private banking licences were handed out in 1993 in the first flush after liberalisation.

On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it had received applications from 26 entities for new banking licences when the deadline expired at 5.45pm.

The shoguns of industry will have to slug it out with a small group of state-owned entities, professionally-run outfits like L&T Finance, and an ensemble of parvenus owning boutique financial services firms for these licences.

Until now, large industrial houses had been barred from establishing banks because of the fear that they might end up as cash troves for the promoter and his group.

Tata Sons — the group’s holding company which reported a networth of over Rs 24,000 crore in the year ended March 2012 — has submitted the application on behalf of Bombay House, the four-storey colonial structure that serves as the head office of the group. However, it is understood that group entity Tata Capital will lead the banking foray.

Aditya Birla Nuvo, the Rs 25,000 crore diversified conglomerate, has thrown down the gauntlet on behalf of the Aditya Birla group.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital and Rahul Bajaj’s Bajaj Finserve are also seen as strong contenders.

The RBI hasn’t said how many licences it plans to issue but it is safe to assume that the winners will include a mix of industry houses, state-owned companies and small financial services outfits.

The regulator has already indicated that it will cherry pick industrial houses with squeaky-clean reputations, diversified ownership, and with little or no exposure to the real estate and broking businesses. It has said it would run a detailed background check on the applicants with other regulators and enforcement and investigative agencies.

In the case of the Tatas and the Birlas, it will be a sort of second coming if they win the licences.

The Tatas had formed a bank in 1917 — Tata Industrial Bank Ltd — that ran into trouble and had to be merged with Central Bank of India in July 1923.

The Birlas had promoted the United Commercial Bank, now known as UCO, which was nationalised in July 1969. Family patriarch G.D. Birla was a chairman of the bank for a long time before handing over the reins to M.P. Birla during whose regime it was taken over by the Indira Gandhi government.

Rahul Bajaj has nursed an ambition for a long time. In fact, his group had once held as much as 8 per cent in ICICI Bank — just shy of the 10 per cent voting threshold that has been set for private entities investing in banks. The group has since pared its stake in ICICI Bank as it aspires to set up its own banking entity.

The RBI has issued private banking twice in the past: 10 private banks were set up in 1993 including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank (formerly UTI Bank).

Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank received their licences in the second phase in 2003.

The next wave of private banks comes exactly a decade later.

The move was initiated by former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who announced in his budget speech in 2010 that the RBI was ready to dole out more banking licences.

In February this year, India’s central bank came out with its final guidelines for establishing new banks that stipulated an initial minimum paid-up capital of Rs 500 crore against the current requirement of Rs 200 crore.

India Post is seen as a strong contender among the state-owned enterprises. Although it doesn’t meet all the criteria laid down by the RBI, it has a large cross-country network and will be able to push the envelope on financial inclusion — the buzzword that resonates with the Manmohan Singh government.

Other state-owned companies vying for the licences include LIC Housing Finance, IFCI, and Tourism Finance Corporation.

Calcutta has four entities that are jockeying for the licences. These included Bandhan Financial Services, Magma Fincorp, Srei Infrastructure Finance and Suryamani Financing Company, a Pawan Kumar Ruia firm.

There are a few surprise contenders. NMACS Management Services Ltd, which offers services like management consultancy, corporate finance, audit, tax and legal advisory services, has joined the race.

A Kochi-based entity UAE Exchange & Financial Services Ltd, a non-banking finance company that offers services for exchange remittances, is also trying its luck.