Bank of Baroda partners Agra-based NBFC Paisalo Digital for micro lending

BoB to focus heavily on women SHGs, looks to expand small loans, micro finance portfolio

Public-sector lender Bank of Baroda (BoB) today signed an agreement with Agra-based non banking financial company (NBFC) Paisalo Digital Limited (PDL) for expanding its micro lending portfolio, especially focussing on women self-help groups (SHG).

The agreement was signed here in the presence of BoB managing director and CEO P S Jayakumar and PDL managing director Sunil Agarwal.

Under the pact, the two financial entities would jointly reach out to prospective customers and conduct due diligence for extending small ticket loans in India with special focus on Uttar Pradesh.

“We would be offering advances ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 and deploy our field level executives, currently numbering about 1,100, to proactively connect to customers seeking small loans,” Agarwal said.

PDL operates through 118 offices across 10 states and has a base of about 1.2 million customers, and an outstanding portfolio of Rs 21,000 crore.

“We are present in almost all the UP districts barring a few and have 225,000 live customers with average loan ticket size of Rs 19,600 in the state,” he informed.

Meanwhile, the agreement is subject to review every six months for renewal, a senior BoB official said.

PDL was originally incorporated as SEIL Microfin Limited in 1992 with focus on micro credit, providing financial solutions to low-income families, and term loan and working capital support to traders and small enterprises.

In March 1995, the company turned public and in July 2001, it entered the business of extending advances against security.