IndusInd Bank to provide finance to low income women borrowers in rural India

The agreement was signed by Christine Engstrom, Director in ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department, S Zaregaonkar, IndusInd Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, and Arun Khurana, Head of IndusInd Bank’s Global Markets Group, at a ceremony in New Delhi.

“ADB is proud to partner with IndusInd Bank, one of India’s premier lenders, in its efforts to expand finance to underserved people in India’s less developed states,” said Ms. Engstrom. “ADB's financing and technical assistance is a signal of our continued commitment to increase financial inclusion in India, particularly to low income women and their families.”

At least 95% of ADB’s funding for the project will be used to provide credit to women borrowers, and at least 70% of the number of loans will be deployed in India’s less developed states. A capacity building technical assistance of $1 million is expected to be part of the package. It will support IndusInd Bank’s efforts to improve financial literacy to women borrowers and to develop digitized processing and product development initiatives.

“This significant agreement with ADB will help IndusInd Bank to further enhance its inclusive banking franchise and extend finance to women borrowers in less developed states of India, providing impetus to the bank’s financial inclusion and corporate social responsibility agenda,” said Romesh Sobti, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of IndusInd Bank.

IndusInd Bank is a pioneer in the business correspondent lending model, a low-cost way for financial institutions to reach poor and marginalized segments of society through institutions such as microfinance lenders who have large distribution networks on the ground. IndusInd Bank works with these microfinance institutions providing micro-loans to women through the joint liability group model. The ADB loan aims to reach an additional 200,000 low income members by 2020.

IndusInd Bank, listed on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges, is the sixth largest private bank in the country. It has a nationwide network of 1,210 branches./.