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

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

By Nicholas Galimberti

RBL Bank Limited, an Indian commercial bank formerly known as Ratnakar Bank Limited (RBL), recently bought out the other owners of Swadhaar Finserve Private Limited (SFPL), a microfinance institution (MFI) providing loan, deposit and insurance services to low-income households as well as micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). For an undisclosed prices, RBL bought a 36-percent stake from US-based NGO Accion and a total of 4 percent from a group of unidentified individual investors.

According to Harjeet Toor, the head of Retail, Inclusion and Rural Business at RBL, the bank “sees Swadhaar as a vehicle for becoming the market leader in the space of inclusive finance, especially catering to the underserved households and small businesses. In the future, [RBL] will also be looking to leverage Swadhaar’s growing branch network to offer other relevant products to customers in semi-urban and rural markets.”

Photo courtesy of Satish Krishnamurthy.