Ujjivan, Equitas: Investors shouldn't rush

Currently, the non-microfinance book is spilt between business loans, loans to the agriculture segment, gold loans and corporate loans

Back in October 2015, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the list of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) eligible to operate as small finance banks (SFBs), there was much cheer on how this opens up a new platform to serve the underserved in a structured banking format. But after two years, as investors look back to assess the progress made by the marquee names — Equitas and Ujjivan — some amount of disappointment seems justified.

Equitas Holdings was the first to hit the bourses in April 2016. The share of microfinance loans was much more than 50 per cent