IndusInd targets retail

The Hinduja Group-owned IndusInd Bank aims to touch a million retail customers by the end of the next fiscal, via. targetted retail products for the youth, old people and women, company executives told reporters here on Monday.

The bank has some 8,00,000 retail customers today, mostly those of Chennai-based vehicle financier, Ashok Leyland Finance (ALF), which it acquired last year, the executives said.

On Monday, the bank launched its "International Mahila Card "" a debit card with features of a credit card" available as an add-on card to existing customers with satisfactory dealings with the bank. They would be eligible for a credit limit of Rs 25,000 with 100 per cent cash withdrawal facility, with "no hidden charges", Varghese Thampi, a senior vice president with the bank said.

Gearing up for the greater emphasis on retail, IndusInd will open more branches, including in the southern states, Suresh Pai, executive vice president of the bank said.

The bank will also exploit the branch network of the erstwhile ALF. IndusInd will have some 130 branches by the end of this fiscal, including 52 belonging to ALF, Pai said.

Thampi said a large number of ALF customers were also under the retail lending business, as existing norms "" set by the government and the Reserve Bank of India "" brought those truck owners with less than 20 trucks under the "priority sector" for lending. In three years, half the bank's business will come from retail customers, he said.

For the three months to December 2004, the bank earned profits of Rs 42.85 crore on an income of Rs 317.60 crore, as per the company's unaudited financial results released in January this year.

IndusInd already has core banking software running on its networks, with a data centre in Mumbai and a disaster recovery site in Hyderabad.

The company aimed to exploit this edge to go after customers such as small traders, and those with urgent short term needs for personal loans, V V Mohan, a vice president with the bank said.