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

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

In its aim to grow its corporate market share, India’s HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private sector lender, has announced a digital bank for its small and medium enterprises (SME) customers.

“It takes away the hassle of physical availability of a relationship manager and makes banking process faster,” said Aseem Dhru, head, business banking. “At the end of December 2015, lending to SME sector has seen de-growth by five per cent but HDFC Bank has grown its SME lending by 29 per cent. So, we are very bullish on this segment and looking at increasingly reaching out to rural and semi-urban areas in a big way.”

HDFC isn’t the only organization that’s bullish about the SME segment. Just recently, Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in the country, has expanded its partnership with Edelweiss Retail Finance, as a lender on its online lending platform.