India’s Axis Bank is planning to open additional 750 branches in the urban areas of the country by the end of fiscal 2016, after it opened 250 branches in unbanked areas in financial year 2014.
The move by Axis Bank comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in May 2013, allowed banks to initially open 25% of new branches in unbanked areas and later open the remaining 75% branches in urban areas within the next three years.
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Axis Bank retail banking president, Rajiv Anand, said the RBI said you could front-load your 25% branches in unbanked areas and carry forward the benefit over the next three years.
"We have already done so…This year, we would have done about 300 unbanked branches," Anand added.
Axis Bank currently has approximately 2,300 branches, with 52% of them in semi-urban, rural and unbanked areas.
Anand said the rural areas are key to their business as they go forward…they are not interested in deposits, but want to participate in the larger financial needs, including loans, insurance and start them off on some basics on investments.
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By GlobalData"It is not a strip down of our model, it is a new set of customers which we want to cater to. They have very similar banking or financial needs," Anand added.
