Our Bureau Bandhan Bank, which plans to raise around ₹4,473 crore through its IPO, is building expertise in the non-micro-finance segment.

The Kolkata-headquartered latest entrant into the banking sector, sees favourable growth opportunities in three areas outside the micro-credit portfolio — affordable homes, MSMEs, and gold loans.

“We are building the skills and continuously training staff to grow the retail business,” Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder, Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank, said here.

Of the total advances of ₹24,400 crore as of December 31, 2017, micro-credits accounted for about 88 per cent, while the rest was in non-micro categories, such as MSMEs, affordable homes and gold.

However, Ghosh pointed out that Bandhan Bank’s core strength and focus would be in the micro-finance business in which it has a market share of about 20 per cent in the country and is confident of growing it further in the coming years. The bank has a total employee strength of more than 27,000.

Though Bandhan has a presence across the country, its distribution network is particularly strong in the North-East and the eastern region, with West Bengal, Assam and Bihar together accounting for 56.37 per cent of its branches and 57.58 per cent of its doorstep service centres (DSCs).

It has more than 12,000 customers in Tamil Nadu and has collected about ₹207 crore of deposits so far.

The bank is raising money through the IPO route to augment its Tier-I capital base to meet the future capital requirements and for other general purposes.

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