Mahila Bank looking for tie-up with Kudumbashree

KOCHI: Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), country's first women-focused bank, is trying for a tie-up with organizations like Kudumbashree, said Usha Ananthasubramanian, chairman and MD of the bank, in Kochi on Tuesday.
"We are trying to tie up with organizations like Kudumbashree, governments, micro finance institutions and good non-governmental organizations.In Maharashtra, we have tied up with women involved in dry-land farming and in Lucknow we are financing women to buy cycle-rickshaws," Ananthasubramanian said.
She also inaugurated the bank's second branch in Kerala at Kochi.
BMB has signed MoUs with different organizations like New India Assuarance Co and Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. While New India Assuarance provides women account holders with insurance, the Chartered Accountants of India and Institute of Cost Accountants of India will offer finance to students pursuing chartered accountancy and cost accountancy courses. Further, the bank, in association with NGOs, has offered financial literacy classes to 21,000 participants nationwide. Each branch is conducting a financial literacy camp every Saturday.
BMB is also targeting a total business of Rs 1,800 crore in the current fiscal year. "Our target is Rs 1,000 crore deposits and Rs 800 crore advances," she said. Towards the end of the fiscal 2015, the bank will be opening another 50 branches of which 20 will be in rural areas.