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Less than a month since it began full-fledged banking operations, Bandhan Bank has added five lakh customers.
Bandhan, which began as a micro-finance institution, started full-fledged banking operations from August 23.
According to CS Ghosh, Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank, it currently has a customer base of 83 lakh (up from 78 lakh when it began banking operations). It has 1.48 crore accounts — savings and loan — at present, an increase of five lakh.
The Kolkata-based lender set its base rate at 12.50 per cent and started operations with over 500 branches.
Over the last few weeks, it opened nine new branches. By the end of this financial year, it plans to have 632 branches and 250 ATMs in 27 States. Of the 501 new bank branches, a majority are in rural and un-banked areas.
Credit operations Bandhan, however, is yet to start credit disbursals, after becoming a bank. Its loan disbursals so far have been through the old set-up as a micro-financer.
According to Ghosh, credit disbursals (as a bank) will start once it has a sizable amount of deposits.
“We have already tested a range of loan products like housing and car loans. We need to build a good deposit base before we start giving full-fledged loans as a bank. We are already giving credit from our earlier set-up as a microfinance institution,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a banking conclave organised by CII.
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