MUMBAI: Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the bank with a focus on women empowerment, plans to increase the number of its branches to 150 by March 2016 from about 40 at present, Usha Ananthasubramanian, chairman and managing director of the bank said here on Tuesday.
The bank on Tuesday started a scheme to finance women entrepreneurs who may want to open beauty parlors. The bank has Lakme Lever as its partner in this venture, in which typically the entrepreneur has to bring in about a third of the capital. The bank will fund the rest.
BMB in the past started with similar programmes with Natural Ice Cream and Cevin Kare. It also launched easy SME loan and home catering loans. The bank plans to double the number of its branches to 80 by March and open another 70 in the next financial year.
Inaugurated on November 19, 2013, BMB has so far disbursed Rs 350 crore and sanctioned Rs 400 crore. The bank, which says it welcomes business from men too, plans to increase its deposits to Rs 1,000 crore and loans to Rs 800 crore from about Rs 600 crore of deposits.