ESAF Small Finance Bank

ESAF Small Finance Bank
Bank-SFB
Industry Banking
Founded 10 March 2017
Headquarters Thrissur, India
Number of locations
 400 branches
Area served
 India
Key people
 K. Paul Thomas, Raveendranathan Prabha
Total equity ₹475 crore (US$73 million) (2018)
Number of employees
 4,000 (2018)
Website www.esafbank.com

ESAF Small Finance Bank (formerly known ESAF Microfinance) is an Indian small finance bank providing banking services and small loans to the underbanked.

Before becoming a bank it was a non-banking finance company and microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI), licensed by the Reserve Bank of India and headquartered in Thrissur city of Kerala.

ESAF started its operations as an NGO in 1992 as Evangelical Social Action Forum, in 1995 it started lending to became the first microfinance company in Kerala. It became ESAF Small Finance Bank after receiving the first banking license in Kerala since independence.[1][2][3]

History and operations

On March 11, 1992, K. Paul Thomas,[4] along with Mereena Paul and a few friends, started ESAF in a small house in Mannuthy named "Little."[5] Jacob Samuel, one of the co-founders, coined the name ESAF, which is an acronym for Evangelical Social Action Forum. At inception, ESAF had five life members, seven annual members and eight honorary members. ESAF society was registered under the Travancore Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act. The initial president was Itty Mathew; J. Danabai was the vice president, Thomas was the secretary, supported by Samuel as joint secretary and Arun Ramakrishnan as treasurer.[6]

In March 2017 Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala officially inaugurated ESAF Small Finance Bank at Thrissur, Kerala. By August 2017, the bank had 3,750 employees, 284 branches, and a presence in 11 states.[5]

In March 2018, a year after its launch, the bank had expanded to 4,000 employees and 400 branches, with ₹2,200 crore (US$338 million) in deposits and ₹4,200 crore (US$645 million) in loans.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ "RBI issues Small Finance Bank license to ESAFurl". Business Standard. November 18, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  2. ↑ "ESAF ties up with FIS for micro finance bank". Economic Times. November 24, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  3. ↑ "The small finance bank will be profitable within first year of operations: K Paul Thomas". Business Standard. June 16, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  4. ↑ "ESAF to graduate into a bank soon". OnManorama. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  5. 1 2 "ESAF SFB fulfils banking dreams pf common man". passlinebusinessmagazine.in. 4 August 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "History at a glance". ESAF India. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "ESAF Crosses Rs.2300 Crore Retail Deposit in the first year - India Education Diary". India Education Diary. 12 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "ESAF Bank to celebrate first anniversary". The Hindu. 11 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.