Small finance banks to scale up gold loan biz

AMID A MUTED overall credit growth in the banking sector, goldloans have emerged as the only segment witnessing strong traction. Rising gold prices have further boosted customer demand.

- CHRISTINA TITUS

Small finance banks (SFBs) are actively ramping up efforts to seize the opportunity and scale up gold loan portfolios by adding branches and deploying more employees on ground.This also marks a shift from unsecured lending to secured loan books.

“We look forward to scale up the gold business.We would like to cater to customers in three segments — consumption purpose, business expansion and income generation — primarily focusing on business banking clients through overdraft and tailored offers. It will help unlock capital by shifting towards secured assets, thereby improving liquidity and capital efficiency” said Murali Vaidyanathan, senior president and country head —branch banking, Equitas Small Finance Bank.