NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, February 16, 2017

The competition in the banking sector is all about services, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bandhan Bank, said in an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol’s Beena Parmar. Since starting operations in August 2015, the Kolkata-headquartered lender has garnered a record deposit base of Rs 20,000 crore and a similar amount in its loan portfolio.

With a mission to create a bond with customers as the bank’s name suggests, Ghosh wants to focus on services and personalised, simplified banking. He sees credit growth as a major challenge and wants to steer clear from corporate lending while focusing on micro, small and medium enterprises.

Below are the excerpts from the interview, where Ghosh used the analogy of a mother and daughter’s fashion choices to describe the debate on digital banking:

Q: Bandhan is set to complete 18 months as a bank. How has the experience been so far?

A: Earlier, we were a microfinance institution providing credit services to the bottom of the pyramid, specifically to women. Since August 23, 2015, we have been serving other customers as well with banking services including credit, savings, recurring deposit, insurance etc.