State ownership | |
Industry | Banking, Financial services |
Founded | 2013State Bank of India on 1st April 2017 | /Merged with
Headquarters | Delhi, India |
Key people
|
S. M. Swathi (ED) |
Products | core banking, credit card, consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, private equity, wealth management |
Owner | Government of India |
Number of employees
|
500 |
Website | www |
Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) was an Indian financial services banking company based in Mumbai, India. Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the system on 19 November 2013 on the occasion of the 96th birth anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Although initially reported as a bank exclusively for women, the bank allows deposits to flow from everyone, but lending will be predominantly for women. India is the third country in the world to have a bank especially for women, after Pakistan and Tanzania. The bank was merged with State Bank of India on 31 March 2017.
In India, only 26% of women have an account with a formal financial institution, compared with 46% of men. (This has changed after the initiation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana - accounts of women jumped radically to 60%) That means an account in either a bank, a credit union, a co-operative, post office or a microfinance institution, according to a study by the World Bank. Also, for women, per capita credit is 80 per cent lower than males.
Furthermore, the results of a study using a global dataset covering 350 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 70 countries indicates that more women clients is associated with lower portfolio-at-risk, lower write-offs, and lower credit-loss provisions, ceteris paribus. provision
The bank will also place emphasis on funding for skills developments to help in economic activity. Moreover, the products will be designed in a manner to give a slight concession on loan rates to women.
The bank shall also aim to inspire people with entrepreneurial skills and, in conjunction with NGOs, plans to locally mobilise women to train them in vocations like toy-making or driving tractors or mobile repairs, according to Usha Ananthasubramanian (CMD).
One of the other objectives of the bank is to promote asset ownership amongst women customers. Studies have shown that asset ownership amongst women reduces their risk of suffering from domestic violence.