Suryoday Small Finance Bank (SSFB) aims to achieve a loan portfolio of about ₹1,800 crore and deposits of ₹700 crore by the end of the next fiscal.

Apart from offering higher interest rates for deposits, the bank’s growth plan will be supported by network expansion.

“Our present asset size is about ₹1,000 crore and net worth has touched ₹500 crore. We expect to increase the asset size to ₹1,600-1,800 crore by the end of next fiscal. Also, we are targeting deposits of ₹700 crore, of which, about ₹500 crore is expected from the retail segment (below ₹10 lakh),” R Baskar Babu, Chief Executive Officer, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, said.

SSFB, formerly known as Suryoday Micro Finance, will lend to shopkeepers, small businesses and affordable home segments for loan growth. In the affordable home segment, it sees huge opportunities for loans in the ₹10-15 lakh bracket.

In the near term, it will focus more on Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to mobilise deposits.

The bank, which has attractive schemes such as higher interest for savings and fixed deposit accounts and monthly interest credit on savings accounts, has two lakh customers in Tamil Nadu.

“We want to focus on senior citizens in Tamil Nadu for deposits. Because this has traditionally been a large fixed deposit (FD) market, particularly for bulk deposits,” Babu said.

With aggressive pricing of deposits, it aims to secure a lot of granular retail depositors. The interest rates will be kept higher for a few months to attract customers and the bank, he said, hopes to mobilise ₹150-200 crore.

He also pointed out that SSFB will launch doorstep services in the State to tap the savings potential of vegetable vendors, auto rickshaw drivers, and the like, who have a surplus of a couple of hundred rupees every day but are unable to save due to absence of saving mechanisms. A fee of ₹50 will be charged per customer per month for such doorstep services.

SSFB will have 10 branches in Tamil Nadu by June. Its existing 40 service centres in Tamil Nadu will be converted into banking outlets in the 12-18 months.

With network expansion across six States, it will have over 300 banking centres, including the bank branches, across the country by the end of 2017-18.