Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, has commenced its banking operations in Salem.
In addition to Salem, Ujjivan SFB has opened four additional branches in Tamil Nadu at Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Vellore Katpadi and Tirupathur. The bank commenced banking operations in February this year with a pilot branch in Bengaluru.
It has established a network of 34 branches across Karnataka, Maharasthra, New Delhi and West Bengal.
Ujjivan has presence across 24 districts in Tamil Nadu with 56 branches, catering to over 5.04 lakh customers. The total loan disbursed in Tamil Nadu as at the end March 2017 stood at over ₹3,136 crore.
Over a period of eight years, Ujjivan’s microfinance branch in Salem has catered to over 12,700 customers. The existing Ujjivan customers would be on-boarded as bank customers.. The process of on-boarding over 6,000 microfinance customers has already been initiated, while the transition for the rest would take place in a phased manner, Ujjivan SFB has stated in a release.
Speaking on the development, Samit Ghosh, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Ujjivan SFB said that the bank would continue to strengthen its footprint across the country to serve target customer segments.
Commenting on the launch, Ittira Davis, Chief Operating Officer, Ujjivan SFB said that significant investment has been made on technology and digitisation. The bank would provide doorstep banking, mobile, internet and phone banking, access to biometric ATMs and Aadhar-enabled debit cards.
“Aadhar-enabled KYC facilitates paperless account opening in approximately 5-7 minutes using biometric authentication on a hand-held device. The device can also be used for cash deposits,withdrawals and fund transfers at the customer’s doorstep’’.
The bank’s customers will have unlimited access to transactions on Ujjivan’s ATM network and a total of six free transactions on other bank’s ATM networks, he added.
“Our goal is to build a leading state of the art mass-market bank in five years to serve the un-served and under-served customer base who currently are outside the formal banking system,” said Ghosh