The Bank's Commercial and Rural Banking (CRB) group was set up in the last financial year to cater to the needs of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) emerging corporates, commercial agriculture, small and marginal farmers, healthcare finance, equipment finance and commercial transport companies. While these are different businesses, the common thread binding them is that they all have a huge footprint in Semi Urban and Rural (SURU) India. As has the Bank with about half its branches in SURU locations. This vertical is also important as its disbursals help the Bank in meeting a large part of the Priority Sector Lending requirements.

CRB has been identified as a growth engine and was the fastest growing vertical for the bank in the year under review. A wide reach across geographies of the country – district by district and understanding of local level business dynamics has helped it in achieving growth rates that exceed the industry average. The Bank at present has 6,300+ branches of which over 5,300+ have loans outstanding to MSME customers. The sourcing model through branch channels allied to traditional prudence is one of the key reasons for containing NPAs. A well trained relationship team does frequent interaction with MSME customers for their overall banking requirements including the personal banking of promoters and family members.

In the rural segment, the Bank is planning to expand its services to 2 Lakh villages in the next two years. It funds not only traditional agriculture but also allied activities. It is totally committed to furthering the Government’s agenda by supporting its various schemes be it AIF/FPO/PMFME and lending to small and marginal farmers.