Disha Microfin Ltd has received the final licence from the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to set up a small finance bank.
The small finance bank will be called Fincare Small Finance Bank and it is targeting a loan book of Rs 20,000 crore over the next five years.
Its operations will commence in July, reported The Hindu.
“The small finance bank licence will enable us to expand our product basket to include liabilities products, higher ticket loans to micro and small enterprises, as well as gold and affordable housing loans,” said Rajeev Yadav, chief executive officer of Fincare platform.
“We will commence banking operations in July this year, with bank branches in our existing states of operation. We are targeting a loan book of Rs 20,000 crore over the next five years,” he added.
Fincare platform provides microfinance loans, micro-enterprise loans and bank partnership loans to emerging consumers at the base of the pyramid, through its group companies.
Disha Microfin had received an in-principle approval from RBI in September 2015 to convert to a small finance bank, valid for 18 months, subject to meeting conditions laid out by the regulator.
As part of the restructuring process for transitioning to the small finance bank, Disha Microfin had completed the process of acquiring the business of Future Financial Services, another Fincare group company, in October 2016.
Further, in March this year, Fincare Business Services, the promoter company of the small finance bank, had closed a Rs 550-crore equity transaction with marquee investors such as True North, TA Associates, Tata Opportunities Fund, SIDBI and Leapfrog Investments.
