Equitas Small Finance Bank to venture into credit cards, personal loans segment

Chennai: Private sector Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd has plans to foray into credit cards and personal loan segments as it expects to build a consumer finance portfolio, a top official said.

Equitas Small Finance Bank was also investing in developing a mobile application to serve merchants and help improve their business operations. Equitas Small Finance Bank reported a 97.1 per cent jump in its profit after tax (PAT) for the April-June 2023 quarter at Rs 191.20 crore. The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 97 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

"In the coming years, we plan to build our consumer finance portfolio by foraying into credit cards and personal loans which will further help increase stability through a diversified loan portfolio," said Arun Ramanathan, the bank's Part-Time Chairman and Non-Executive Independent Director. The bank would work on offerings like forex cards, Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) deposits, and remittances, among others, he said. Ramanathan, in the latest annual report released on Sunday, said the bank completed the reverse merger of Equitas Holdings Ltd with Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd which would allow the financial institution to apply for a Universal Bank License.

"Apart from ending the anomaly of having two listed companies with more or less the same asset base, the merger cleared the decks for Equitas Small Finance Bank to apply for a Universal Bank License once the guidelines for the same are issued," he said.

Managing Director and CEO P N Vasudevan said the bank is a new-age financial institution that continues to undertake various digitisation initiatives to empower the customer access to the bank's products and solutions. "With the increasing penetration of smartphones and faster data connectivity, we are investing in a dedicated app for our tiny and small merchants to help them improve their business operations and integrate their operating systems with various payments and banking solutions," he said.

Vasudevan said the bank was engaged in setting up a cancer care hospital under the Equitas Healthcare Foundation in association with Sringeri Sarada Math. "We started building a hospital to provide access to high-quality cancer care under the Equitas Healthcare Foundation, jointly with Sringeri Sarada Mutt...we expect the hospital to commence operations in the second half of this year," he said. The hospital would bring in new hope and provide the right guidance in a concerted fight to reverse the course of cancer, specifically for people coming from low-income segments, he said.