Unsecured loan book grows despite sluggish growth: Citi India

American lender Citi said here today that despite sluggish economic growth in the country, its unsecured loan book continues to grow and its quality has not been affected.
The unsecured loans book has good credit quality and there is healthy growth, the Citi India's Country Business Manager Kartik Kaushik told reporters, when asked about the impact of economic growth on its operations.
He said the consumer lending business is steady and performance is higher than planned.
Consumer behaviour has not abated in the country, which is seen in higher spends, nor have credit requirements seen any dip, he said.
It may be noted that in the aftermath of the 2008 credit crisis, that there is a spurt in assets quality woes around credit card and personal loan books. Many lenders, who were aggressive on the front in the days ahead of the crisis, were impacted badly.

Meanwhile, Citi tied up with MasterCard today to launch a digital wallet called 'Citi MasterPass' which eases shopping for customers.

The wallet is linked to Citi's credit card or bank account, to ensure that there will not be any limits on transactions, so that users would not have to refill the wallet.
MasterCard had launched the product first in 2013 and India is the 24th country where the product has been introduced, the MasterCard Executive Director for South Asia Vikas Varma said.
E-commerce websites accepting MasterPass have a dedicated tab and Kaushik said that the bank has tied up with 120 such merchant outlets comprising 30 per cent of spends in the sector.

It plans to take this upto 60 per cent by the end of the year, he said.