Chandra Shekhar Ghosh recalls a time when moneylenders would threaten him and his team as they went about disbursing loans to poor women in the villages. Complaints would be filed with the local thana, alleging that the microfinance institution (MFI) was a chit fund out to cheat people. It was never easy to deal with these situations and Ghosh recalls how the women customers themselves often came to their rescue.
Things got better as the MFI grew bigger and the villagers realised that they were actually getting a much better deal. But in the beginning, it was real hard work. The MFI started out in Konnagar, West Bengal, in 2001 with just `2 lakh collected from Ghosh’s mother, wife and cousins. He had been troubled by the usurious rates of 7.5% a month charged by moneylenders. The original team with just three or four members worked out of his home. Later, offices came up in Dunlop and Dakshineshwar, and five years after setting up the MFI, an NBFC was acquired in 2006.
In the early days, no banker was willing to lend to the MFI funds until SIDBI came along with a loan of Rs 20 lakh at an interest rate of 9%. It was much later that banks realised lending to an MFI could give them high returns. HSBC India and State Bank of India were among the first to support Bandhan.
Even today Ghosh enjoys interacting with village folk not just to scout for potential customers but to stay in touch with changes in the environment. He could easily have stayed on with the family’s hosiery business in Kolkata (then Calcutta), after getting his degree in statistics from Dhaka University. But instead he joined the Village Welfare Society – an organisation that created awareness about financial savings and loans. His stint there inspired him to get into the micro-lending space.
The bank licence in 2014 was a reward for all the hard work. Ghosh is known to be a tough taskmaster and has just turned 63, but the stress and strain of running a bank hasn’t slowed him down even the slightest bit. He’s disciplined to the core, never missing his 5-km morning walk or yoga. The secret of his lean and mean frame is a very light breakfast – mostly a bowl of rice and some vegetables. And he skips lunch. Although his father ran a sweetmeat shop in Tripura, where he spent part of his childhood, Ghosh rarely touches the stuff. And whichever the city he is in, bedtime is at sharp 10 pm.
God has been good to him and the bank, he says. The last couple of years – following the pandemic – have been a very difficult time, with some state governments waiving off loans. Nonetheless, it has been able to complete the acquisition of Gruh Finance through a share swap and also the buyout of IDFC AMC, which would help the lender diversify its business. The organic growth continues with the lender having trebled its branch network in eight years and collected 30 million customers.
But what keeps Ghosh going are the success stories of the 20 million women who have been able to earn a livelihood thanks to the financial support from the Bandhan MFI. For him, that’s the ultimate reward.