ESAF Small Finance Bank explained

ESAF Small Finance Bank
Logo Alt:Logo of ESAF Small Finance Bank
Former Name:ESAF Microfinance and Investments Pvt. Ltd.
Type:Public
Num Locations Year:2020
Area Served:India
Industry:Banking
Num Employees:3,337
Num Employees Year:2020
Num Locations:500 branches
Revenue: (FY23)
Operating Income: (FY23)
Profit: (FY23)[1]
Location:Mannuthy, Thrissur (Registered & Corporate Office)

ESAF Small Finance Bank (formerly known as ESAF Microfinance and Investments) is an Indian small finance bank headquartered in Thrissur, Kerala, providing banking services and small loans to the underbanked. Having started its operations as an NGO in 1992 under the name of Evangelical Social Action Forum, ESAF Microfinance was a non-banking finance company and microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI), licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It became a small finance bank in March 2017 and started operating in January 2018.[2]

History and operations

On 11 March 1992, K. Paul Thomas,[3] along with Mereena Paul and a few friends, started ESAF in a small house in Mannuthy named Little.[4] 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.[5]

ESAF started lending in 1995 as the first microfinance company in Kerala. It became ESAF Small Finance Bank after receiving the first banking license in Kerala since independence.[6] [7] [8]

On 17 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.

In March 2018, a year after its launch, the bank had expanded to 4,000 employees and 400 branches, with crore (US$ million) in deposits and crore (US$ million) in loans.[9] [10]

ESAF Small Finance Bank received RBI approval to operate as scheduled bank in December 2018, making it the fifth scheduled bank from Kerala. This will reduce the bank's cost of funds, while increasing the bank's ability and obligation to provide services.[11] The bank's net profit increased to crore in the 2019-2020 financial year from crore the previous year.[12] [13]

On 26 March 2020, the bank received approval from SEBI for issuing its crore initial public offering.[14]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: ESAF Bank net profit soars 452% in FY23 . 31 October 2023 . BusinessLine . 11 May 2023 . en.
  2. Web site: sundarajan . Priya . 2017-03-17 . ESAF Small Finance Bank launched . 2024-03-31 . BusinessLine . en.
  3. Web site: ESAF to graduate into a bank soon. OnManorama. 18 March 2018. 18 September 2015.
  4. Web site: ESAF SFB fulfils banking dreams of common man. passlinebusinessmagazine.in. 18 March 2018. en-gb. 4 August 2017. 16 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180616235044/http://passlinebusinessmagazine.in/component/content/article/25-slider/675-esaf-sfb-fulfils-banking-dreams-pf-commom-man. dead.
  5. Web site: History at a glance. ESAF India. 20 March 2018. en-gb.
  6. Web site: RBI issues Small Finance Bank license to ESAFurl . Business Standard . 18 November 2016 . 17 December 2016.
  7. Web site: ESAF ties up with FIS for micro finance bank . Economic Times . 24 November 2016 . 17 December 2016.
  8. Web site: The small finance bank will be profitable within first year of operations: K Paul Thomas . Business Standard . 16 June 2016 . 17 December 2016.
  9. Web site: ESAF Crosses Rs.2300 Crore Retail Deposit in the first year - India Education Diary. India Education Diary. 20 March 2018. 12 March 2018.
  10. News: ESAF Bank to celebrate first anniversary. 20 March 2018. The Hindu. 11 March 2018. en-IN.
  11. Web site: With RBI nod, ESAF is now scheduled bank. 9 January 2019 . The Hindu BusinessLine . 28 December 2018 . en.
  12. News: ESAF Small Finance Bank Q4 profit up over 3-fold . 16 November 2019 . The Economic Times . 13 May 2019.
  13. Web site: ESAF. 2020-11-03. www.esafbank.com.
  14. Web site: ESAF Small Finance Bank gets Sebi nod for IPO. 2021-03-24. in.finance.yahoo.com. en-IN.