Indian Bank to step up SME, agri lending

MUMBAI: Financial inclusion will be the sole aim of Indian Bank during the current fiscal, Dr K C Chakravarthy, chairman & managing director has said.

The bank has decided to focus largely on lending to agriculture and SMEs during the year.

“Sixty percent of the Indian population is away from the reach of the banking sector, while 80% of the people are unaware of the insurance industry. While financial penetration is as low as 2%, we have decided to lend aggressively to agriculture and SME sector. Education loans will also constitute a part of our credit portfolio,” said Chakravarthy.

The bank has decided to alter its credit portfolio by lending 25% to agriculture, 22% to SMEs and 20% to home loan borrowers.

It charges 9.5% and 10.5% for floating and fixed rate loans, respectively.

The growth of non-performing assets (NPAs) in agriculture doesn’t bother the bank. “Our net NPAs in agriculture are 1.2%. We plan to get this down to less than 1% during this year,” said Chakravarthy.

A foray into micro-finance is on the cards this year. “We have decided to open 12 micro-finance centres in Chennai, Delhi and Guntur with the help of NGOs. We will also target the urban poor of Tamil and Mumbai,” said Chakravarthy.

He said the bank will soon introduce biometric cards in the slum areas of Dharavi, Mumbai.

Chakravarthy is aiming for a deposit growth of 17-18% and credit growth of 22-23% this year.