The 10-month-old Bharatiya Mahila Bank, which aims to economically empower Indian women, is not a bank ‘of the women, for the women and by the women.’ “It’s an all-gender bank, but a women-centric one at that,” Usha Ananthasubramanian, Chairman and Managing Director, told BusinessLine in an interview. “For instance, we accept deposits from all, but we mostly lend to women.” About a third of its staff is men. Ananthasubramanian, who was in Kochi to open the bank’s 30th branch, spoke about her vision for the Mahila Bank and the question she often faces: Why a bank for women? Excerpts.

As a bank, how does BMB look at women?

In our society, women are not generally looked at as economic assets capable of engaging in economic activities and generating income. But, we at BMB look at women differently: they are capable persons who can responsibly engage themselves in economic activities, generate incomes and are part of the economy.

For us, as a bank, women are certainly bank-able.

While other banks look at women as ‘not-serious’ customers doing banking operations for their men folk, we take them seriously and cater to their needs. We are trying to leverage women’s strengths and capabilities to drive economic activities.

What are some of your products?

We lend to women for starting or expanding income-generating economic activities. Some of the specific schemes are loans for setting up home catering units, beauty salons and day-care centres. Since few women are allowed to own land, houses and other properties in our society, they are not able to offer collateral security to banks.

So, we are insuring loans up to ₹1 crore with the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises. As of now, we do not accept gold as collateral security and also do not offer gold loans. For savings bank deposits, we pay half a per cent more (4.5 per cent) than other banks. For deposits above ₹1 lakh the rate of interest is 5 per cent, which is specific to our bank.

Do you lend to corporates?

Yes, provided they are women-centric. Either the CEO should be a woman or at least 40 per cent of the board of directors should be women. Alternatively, if a firm has a half of its employees as women or if it promotes a cause such as women’s education or employment we can lend to it. A firm that makes a product that is primarily used by women is also eligible for a loan.

What are your expansion plans for the near term?

By March next, we will have a branch network of 80, that is, we will open 50 more branches in the next six months.

At least 20 of the total will be in rural or semi-urban areas as women in the rural areas hardly have any access to banking services. We hope to get about ₹1,000 crore in deposits and plan to lend ₹800 crore as loans in a year. We will give a lot of emphasis to customer service.

Your bank seems to be bullish on technology?

We are a technology-driven new-generation bank. We will launch Internet banking in another 10 days; already, we have SMS banking. Soon, we will launch mobile banking. These are aimed at saving time for women customers.

Are there concessional loans?

In certain cases, yes. But we are not a charity. We are a commercial bank on par with other public-sector banks. We want to be a profit-making bank.

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