IndusInd Bank bags $200 mn-loan from ADB to lend rural women borrowers

Private player IndusInd Bank on Friday said it has secured up to $200 million (about Rs 1,282 crore) loan from multilateral lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) to serve low income women borrowers in rural areas.

The 7-year senior loan will go towards IndusInd Bank's micro-finance activities, it said in a statement.

The loan pact was inked here by Christine Engstrom, Director of ADB's Private Sector Operations Department, IndusInd Bank chief financial officer S Zaregaonkar and Arun Khurana, Head of IndusInd Bank's Global Markets Group.

Engstrom said ADB's financing and technical assistance is a signal of its continued commitment to increase financial inclusion in India, particularly to low income women and their families.

This will help the bank to expand its efforts to finance underserved people of the country in less developed states, she said.

As per the loan agreement, about 95 per cent of the ADB funding is to go towards credit to women borrowers.

At least 70 per cent of the number of loans will be deployed to less developed states, the bank said.

"A capacity building technical assistance of $1 million is expected to be part of the package. It will support IndusInd Bank's efforts to improve financial literacy to women borrowers and to develop digitised processing and product development initiatives," the bank said.