President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday cautioned the Indian banking sector against inadequate or low credit facilitation to rural sector even as non-performing assets are piled up through “injudicious advancing”.

“As it is pointed out, even today the access to banking facilities for India’s total population — which is almost 1.3 billion — is not very encouraging. In addition to that, the problems which have emerged — in respect of finances, managing the non-performing assets....injudicious advancing — clearly point out all the fault-lines,” he said while speaking at the first year anniversary celebrations of Bandhan Bank.

He, however, added that as President it was not right for him to make comments on the Reserve Bank of India. Mukherjee also issued a word of caution and maintained that bankers were “custodians of depositors’ money”. Money is deposited with the trust that it will earn some income.

“Even after 46 years of bank nationalisation and massive expansion of bank branches — both rural and urban, cooperative societies, regional rural banks — institutional credit to the rural sectors and the unorganised sector demands much more attention,” he said while praising Bandhan for coming ahead to fulfil the vacuum in these areas.

Bandhan's growth

A year since beginning operations, Bandhan has garnered deposits of ₹16,000 crore and the customer base stands at ninety lakh.

Its advances (as of date) stands at ₹16,500 crore, CS Ghosh, Founder, MD and CEO, Bandhan Bank, said.

The bank currently has 701 branches across 30 States and Union Territories and is looking to take this number up to 1,000 (branches) over the next one year.

It will also enter Goa, J&K and Andaman & Nicobar soon.

According to Ghosh, a new mobile app — Unified Payment Interface — is also in the works.

“The mobile app will ensure seamless fund transfer and merchant payments. It is expected to go live soon,” he added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW