Chandrashekhar Ghosh's (Founder and CEO of Bandhan Bank) father owned a sweet shop in Agartala. Ghosh used to help out in childhood. His father had other things in mind for him and sent him away to study. Ghosh completed a masters in statistics from Dhaka University and joined Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the world largest non-government development organisation based on the number of people it employs. It is also into micro-finance. That's where the seeds of Bandhan Bank were sowed.
Ghosh returned to India and worked with several NGOs, which exposed him to the difficulties of raising small loans. He found moneylenders charging 200% from the poor people who had no resource to bank finance. Eventually, Ghosh started Bandhan in Kolkata as a microfinance company in 2001 with his savings of Rs2 lakh. That started an unlikely journey that saw Bandhan beat 23 business houses, some of them much larger than Bandhan, to be a given a licence in April 2014 to start a bank. There were only two licences given, the other went to IDFC.
By that time Bandhan had become the country's largest microlender on assets. It had a loan book of Rs6,200 crore and 5.4 million borrowers. That played big role to convince the RBI that it will add a new dimension to banking. Now Bandhan Bank has 8.3 million customers, 20,600 employees, Rs8.900 crore deposits, Rs 14,278 crore loans that have not been repaid, 633 branches and 250 ATM.
By that time Bandhan had become the country's largest microlender on assets. It had a loan book of Rs6,200 crore and 5.4 million borrowers. That played big role to convince the RBI that it will add a new dimension to banking. Now Bandhan Bank has 8.3 million customers, 20,600 employees, Rs8.900 crore deposits, Rs 14,278 crore loans that have not been repaid, 633 branches and 250 ATM.
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