(1) No person, other than the Reserve Bank, shall commence or operate a payment system except under and in accordance with an authorisation issued by the Reserve Bank under the provisions of this Act:

Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply to—

(a) the continued operation of an existing payment system on commencement of this Act for a period not exceeding six months from such commencement, unless within such period, the operator of such payment system obtains an authorisation under this Act or the application for authorisation made under section 7 of this Act is refused by the Reserve Bank;

(b) any person acting as the duly appointed agent of another person to whom the payment is due;

(c) a company accepting payments either from its holding company or any of its subsidiary companies or from any other company which is also a subsidiary of the same holding company;

(d) any other person whom the Reserve Bank may, after considering the interests of monetary policy or efficient operation of payment systems, the size of any payment system or for any other reason, by notification, exempt from the provisions of this section.

(2) The Reserve Bank may, under sub-section (1) of this section, authorise a company or corporation to operate or regulate the existing clearing houses or new clearing houses of banks in order to have a common retail clearing house system for the banks throughout the country:

Provided, however, that not less than fifty-one per cent. of the equity of such company or corporation shall be held by public sector banks.

"Explanation ".—For the purposes of this clause, "public sector banks " shall include a "corresponding new bank ", "State Bank of India " and "subsidiary bank " as defined in section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949).