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Harun R Khan, former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will be the first Chair of the Steering Committee of the Code for Responsible Lending (CRL) for micro-finance industry.
Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) and Sa-Dhan had in September 2019 launched CRL in micro-credit, bringing diverse entities like banks, small finance banks, NBFC-MFIs and NBFCs to voluntarily agree on adhering with standards of customer protection including addressing over-leveraging.
Nearly 100 lenders have till date signed the CRL, accounting for two-third of the micro-credit industry.
To administer the CRL and get all microfinance players to conform to the same standards and ensure there is no overlending to the same borrower, MFIN had sought to set up a Steering Committee.
Besides H.R.Khan as its Chairman, the Steering Committee comprised of Srinivas Bonam - IndusInd Bank, Govind Singh - Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, Sonia Krishnankutty - L & T Finance, Manoj Kumar Nambiar - Arohan Financial Services, Murali Srinivas - Smile Microfinance, Harsh Shrivastava - MFIN and P Satish - Sa-Dhan as members.
Commenting on his role as Chairman of CRL, Harun R Khan said: "I am excited to be part of this initiative of MFIN and Sa-Dhan. It is important to promote responsible financing to protect the interests of underserved and unserved borrowers. This is becoming increasingly important as more and more first generation and women borrowers take microfinance loans. This way of bringing together all microfinance lenders—banks, SFBs, MFIs and NBFCs, on a common platform is unique. I look forward to contributing to this.”
Khan had joined the Reserve Bank of India in 1978 working his way up ranks and in diverse areas. He became the Principal of RBI's College of Agricultural Banking (CAB) at Pune before being appointed as the Regional Director of RBI in the capital. Between 2007 and 2008, he was the Director at various Public Sector Banks, NABARD and NHB.
He became the Executive Director of RBI in 2007 before assuming the title of Deputy Governor in 2011. Khan was also the Chairman of the RBI Internal Group on Rural Credit and Microfinance, which was popularly known as the Khan Committee.
Based on the recommendations of the Khan Committee, RBI prepared guidelines for expansion of the banking outreach through the Business Facilitator and Business Correspondent models, which revolutionized the spread of financial inclusion in India.
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