Utkarsh Micro Finance has received the final approval from the Reserve Bank of India to start operations as a small finance bank. The firm said in a statement it intends to launch banking operations in early 2017. MD and CEO of Utkarsh Microfinance Govind Singh said Utkarsh continue to be committed to the mission of financial inclusion and offer wide range of banking products to the people. The bank will be named as Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. The Varanasi headquartered MFI has operations in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. It has around 1.2 million customers and a portfolio of over Rs 1,809 crore. The other entity that has received RBI’s final approval is Ujjivan Microfinance and it is likely to commence banking operations by early 2017. Among the licensees, only Equitas and Capital Small Finance Bank has started operations.
