Post SCB status, Fincare SFB to focus on expansion

After receiving scheduled commercial bank (SCB) status from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Fincare Small Finance Bank is now looking to scale up its products and strengthen its network of business correspondents in FY20, a top bank official said Wednesday. "The bank is looking to scale up its asset business like loan against property, affordable housing loan, and launch wealth management, tax-saver FDs, flexible deposits, and sweep in-sweep out current accounts in the current financial year," Fincare SFB's Managing Director and CEO Rajeev Yadav told reporters here.

The bank plans to launch unified payment interface (UPI), Aadhar enabled payment system (AePS), expand its business correspondents network in metros and other areas and expand retail banking presence in cities like Pune, Calicut, and Trivandrum, Yadav said. The bank commenced banking operations in July 2017 and received the scheduled commercial bank status from the RBI in June 2019.

As a scheduled commercial bank, the lender can now broad-base its lines of funding and liquidity facilities. The bank serves over 15.5 lakh customers through a network of 570 banking outlets operating across various states.

It plans to enter the markets of Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha in coming years, said Soham Shukla, COO, rural banking. The bank's gross loan portfolio grew by 65 percent at Rs 3,530 crore during the last financial year. The bank has garnered deposits of Rs 2,043.2 crore, a growth of over 181 percent y-oy, with retail deposits comprising 58 percent of the total deposits last year.