Reserve Bank of India has declared itself permanently open to applications for banking licences, as it pushes for greater competition in a sector dominated by state-owned banks with burgeoning numbers of distressed loans, the Financial Times reports. This ends the RBI's practice of issuing licences only once a decade, which started when India began liberalising its banking industry in 1993. There were ten successful applications that year, two in 2003, and another two during the latest six-month window in 2013. China's central bank has approved a preliminary plan to create a clearinghouse for online transactions, making progress towards dismantling separate agreements between third-party payment firms and banks, reports the Chinese online news service Caixin. The clearinghouse could be launched by the end of the year, and will require banks to follow its protocols and rules when clearing transactions made through third-party payment services such as Alipay, "several people with knowledge of the matter" told Caixin. Third party bank agreements payments allow firms to sidestep China UnionPay, the sole bank card association with a license to provide clearing services for interbank yuan payments.