HDFC Bank carves out Rural Banking business to penetrate deeper into India

The HDFC bank on Thursday announced that it has carved out a Rural Banking function to penetrate deeper into India. Through its Rural Banking function, the largest private lender aims to take its banking products further in the hinterland, the company release said.

Rural Banking will consolidate the bank's existing initiatives in this direction and take it closer to the last mile, the release said further. 

"We are excited to take the bank's world-class products and services to the remotest corner of India," the press statement said quoting Anil Bhavnani, Sr Executive Vice President and National Rural Banking Head, HDFC Bank. 

"This is both a challenge and an opportunity and I am very excited to take this up. For many years now, the bank had 50% of its branches in semi urban and rural areas. With this enhanced focus, we will open more branches this financial year in Semi-Urban and Rural areas. While branches are touchpoints, we are working on meeting rural needs holistically, by creating products specially designed for these markets,” he added.

Carved out of Retail Branch Banking as part of the bank’s ‘Future - Ready’ project, the Rural Banking business focuses on semi-urban and rural areas, a large part of which remains untapped. 

At present, the Bank has 50 percent of its 6,342 branches in semi-urban and rural areas, and the remaining 50% in metro and urban areas. The bank also works with Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) of Common Service Centres (CSC) as an extension of the bank's branches in far-flung areas.  

The Rural Banking business offers an entire bouquet of products and services in semi-urban and rural areas. Towards this, the bank will adopt the following approach:

1. Distribution Network - To expand its distribution in the rural areas, the Bank to open over 1,064 branches in semi-urban and rural areas in this financial year.
2. Strategic Partnership – The bank has partnered with the Institute of Rural Management, Anand to create a ‘Rural First’ strategy by understanding evolving dynamics related to consumer behaviour, customer satisfaction, service design, and service delivery
3. New Products and Services - To build new products and services related to rural transport economy, forest economy, Agri economy, and other allied activities
4. One-Stop-Shop Solution – To focus on providing a one-stop-shop solution to small farmers, workers, and traders
5. Financial Literacy Awareness – To spread awareness on good savings habits and financial literacy