With the Election Commission’s model code of conduct for poll-bound Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in effect since October 4, the nation’s first women-oriented lender, Bharatiya Mahila Bank, is unlikely to be launched on November 19 ? the birth anniversary of India’s lone woman Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi ? as was proposed.
“The bank, with an initial capital of R1,000 crore, will be headquartered in Delhi and will have a branch in Madhya Pradesh. Besides, there are other states going to the polls where there could be branches, and therefore the election code will apply there as well. So we have not yet taken a decision on the launch date,” a senior finance ministry official told FE.
The official said that although other formalities are more or less completed for the bank’s launch — including the necessary RBI approvals and selection of over 100 officers and over 150 other employees (including fresh recruits and recruits from other public sector banks) — it is unlikely to be inaugurated on November 19.
The bank, which is expected to have 25 branches by the end of this fiscal, is likely to start off with one branch each in Indore, Jaipur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Lucknow and Guwahati (possibly also in Ahmedabad and Mysore).
Men are likely to comprise only a third of its total staff, while its focus will be on enhancing lending to women entrepreneurs and projects empowering women.
It is planned that the bank, to be led by Punjab National Bank executive director Usha Ananthasubramanian, will expand from just around 40 branches, 125 ATMs and 33,300 customer accounts within the first year of its operations to around 800 branches, 2,100 ATMs and over 55 lakh customer accounts by its seventh year of operations.
In his Budget speech in February, finance minister P Chidambaram had said that despite women heading many banks today, there was no bank that exclusively served women. He said this finding led to the proposal to have a bank that “lends mostly to women and women-run businesses, that supports women SHGs and women?s livelihood, that employs predominantly women, and that addresses gender-related aspects of empowerment and financial inclusion”.
He then formed a six-member panel chaired by former Canara Bank CMD MBN Rao on International Women?s Day to prepare a blueprint for the bank by April-end.
