The Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), the first all-women bank in India, opened its first branch in Andhra Pradesh at Ameerpet on Saturday.
This is the 19th branch of the BMB in the country. Speaking on the occasion, BMB chairperson and managing director Usha Anantha Subramanian announced that the bank is goig to open 55-65 new branches within the current financial year.
"By March 31 this year, 23-24 branches will be opened and BMB will have 55-65 more branches by the next financial year. They will be scattered all across the country," she said.
"As per RBI guidelines, 20 branches out of the proposed 80 will be opened in the rural areas," she said.
The Hyderabad branch was inaugurated by Shanta Sinha, former chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The BMB bank is designed to cater to the needs of women, and it offers them a vast range of banking and financial services.
The bank has designed a special loan product for the setting up of day-care centres. It also offers total collateral free loans of upto Rs 1 crore by covering them under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGFTMSE).
The BMB has tied up with the New India Assurance Company to extend general insurance products to poor and underprivileged women as well as to working women. (INN)