From seven branches in December 2013, the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) is now looking to cross 80 this year with new ones in Kochi, Dholpur and other places. It already has a presence in 23 states. The Bank is slowly emerging as a chief option for women to get credit on easier terms than commercial banks. It lends money to women who set up small businesses, beauty parlours, day care centres and home based initiatives and customers get upto Rs one crore without a credit guarantee. They only have to take an insurance policy under the government’s Credit Guarantee Fund Trust Scheme and pay an annual premium, says Maya M C, deputy general manager (resource mobilisation), BMB.. Lending to self help groups is a major chunk of its micro financing and among others it is helping women buy sewing machines and cycle rickshaws in Lucknow, a self- help group of Muslim women who do a daily business of selling omelettes and bread near R K Puram in the capital and a chapatti making business. Some big ticket enterprises are also its clients.
With the Jan Dhan Yojana coming at an opportune moment, the Bank which was launched in November 2013 wants to have a 25 per cent presence in rural areas. It has a modest Rs five crore budget for advertising and the bank relies on mobilisation camps and word of mouth to attract customers. Recently before its branch opens in September first week in Dholpur near Agra, a meeting was held with people from 28 nearby villages. “It will be a brick and mortar branch and the idea was to spread awareness but we opened 7000 accounts,” Ms Maya said.
The bank was mooted in the 2013 budget and while it is aimed at facilitating credit for women, it has not closed its doors to men. The deposit portfolio is open to both men and women and while the bank prefers to give loans to women and educated home workers, 13 per cent of its clientele are men. The Bank also lends to Non Banking Financial Company (NBFC) s and one of them is Momo Rangoli which works in home based businesses and retail products for women. In Madurai too it has given loans to Dhan Foundation which works with 26,000 women.
With simplified KYC norms, all you need is a declaration if you want to open an account. The last mega camp in Govindpuri in New Delhi recently drew thousands of people and the bank canvassed 25,000 accounts. The bank gives ATM cards and since 90 per cent of the customers have mobile phones, phone banking is also an option. It is launching internet banking next month and also plans to introduce mobile van banking in rural areas. Already it has bagged the Core Banking System Initiative Award for the year 2014 given by Asian Banking and Finance at the Retail Banking Awards in Singapore.
Housing loans get 0.25 per cent off if you are a woman and the house is in your name, and there are concessions for one to three- year term deposits and in loans for SMEs too. “No woman should come to our bank and go back empty handed,” Ms Maya remarks. With 50,000 customers and a turnover of Rs 400 crore in nine months, the bank uses radio to spread the word in cities. The officers at the Bank work almost seven days a week and every Saturday hold financial literacy camps. Ms Maya talks to people even during her morning walk and as a result now she has people knocking on her door to open bank accounts.
However, she admits the bank is yet to have brand image and many ask if men can also open accounts. She says it is still the first bank of its kind in India which is professional and women friendly. The difficulty is that few know about the bank. The bank which has a staff of 160, is recruiting young professionals and hopes to have 600 staff members by the year end. It is specially targeting the North eastern region since it is poor in terms of credit to the poor and banking. In Guwahati the bank has already crossed its target of 600 accounts with 1400 this year. “We are a commercial bank and we need profits. We don’t want to be called a rural bank,” she avers.
