Panaji: Fincare Small Finance Bank, which has strong presence in South and Western India, is eying Eastern India market and has planned to add one or more states to its kitty by the end of the current financial year, according its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajeev Yadav.
In a conversation with UNI, Yadav said the bank’s focus is not only adding more states but also ensuring depth of service in the states which it covers.
‘We would be adding one or two more states in the current financial year. We don’t cover eastern side of the country so we would be going to Kolkata in West Bengal. Within the 18-19 states, the large thing we would be doing is to add more depth to our network. We keep adding more branches in the cities. The network therefore keeps on increasing every year. Every year at least 15-18 branches are added. So we are not only adding more states but also adding more depth to our services,’ he said.
Speaking on the target set for the current financial year and next few years, Yadav said: ‘We have a total business of Rs 14,000 crore. Earlier our growth rate used to be 40 to 50 per cent. We hope to grow at the same rate in the future as well. That is the goal for this year.”
“(About the next few years) it is a little difficult to say. We are in the process of listing the bank at the BSE. (We expect) some reasonable growth rate which is of very decent size. Our objective is to maintain a good growth (rate). You have to grow at a reasonable rate,’ he said.
When asked, are Non Performing Assets (NPAs) an issue for the bank?
Yadav replied, ‘NPA was elevated in the Covid phase because of the unsecured loans but that has come down dramatically. It is very close to pre-Covid levels. So at this point of time it is not an issue.’
Elaborating more he said: ‘In micro financing loans, NPAs are far lower than individual loans or secured loans. Yes, it is less risky but it has its own volatility. Sometimes it is more volatile like it happened during Covid phase when there was more disruption. SME loans have all types of characteristics but for the economics of the business NPAs are very reasonable.’
But what about competition given the fact that there are already so many private as well as public sector banks.
Yadav said: ‘There is always competition but we are focused in the financial inclusion segment and there is not as much focus on all other banks in that segment. There is scope for innovation and improving service and through that process we should be able to make our bank a reasonable size bank. So as long as you focus on niches which are of size and scale, you can build expertise on that and make a good value in the future.’
Fincare Small Finance Bank launched banking operations in Goa recently with the opening its first branch in the capital city of Panaji.
