Bandhan Financial Services said on Friday that it is likely to come up with about 600 bank branches across the country while foraying into full-fledged banking operations within 18 months.
About 80% of the upcoming bank branches would be unbanked rural areas. ?By 18 months, we will come up as a full-fledged bank. To start with,we are likely to have about 600 bank branches in 22 states across the country,? Bandhan Financial Services CMD Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said during an interactive session, organised by industry body Bharat Chamber of Commerce. Ghosh said about 50% of the toal 600 branches to be rolled out would be in West Bengal.
?As a full-fledged bank, we will focus on our existing customers. And to serve our 54 lakh existing customers, we will need 600-700 bank branches,? he said.
Bandhan, as a bank, could have 1 crore basic savings accounts from day one of its banking operations, he said.
?Currently, we have 54 lakh customers. If we can secure two accounts per family, we could easily have 1 crore savings accounts from day one,? Ghosh said.
Bandhan earlier said it would appoint a consultancy firm soon to transform its microfinance operations into mainstream banking.
The Kolkata-based microfinance major is one of the two players picked by RBI from among 25 applicants to start banking operations.
?We will appoint a consultancy firm for transforming our MFI operations into a bank. We are talking to different consultancy firms such as Deloitte, McKinsey, Ernst & Young, BCG and KPMG. We expect to appoint one of them as our consultant soon,? Ghosh said. With a loan book of more than R6,000 crore, Bandhan currently has a network of 2,016 micro finance branches and about 45% of them are in unbanked rural areas.