DBS Bank India hopes its proposed entry into the home loan business will have a spin-off, with instalments routed through the savings bank accounts held by its customers. The bank wants to ramp up its retail deposit base which currently accounts for just 3% (Rs 250 crore) of the total deposit base of about Rs 8,300 crore. A chunk of the deposits are wholesale or corporate deposits. The bank intends to scale up the retail deposit base to Rs 1000 crore by FY 2015-16. Rahul Johri, head, Consumer Banking of the bank, said to expand retail business, the bank plans to get into the retail assets side and going to launch mortgages in Delhi and Mumbai by May this year. Subsequently, it will launch mortgages in Bangalore and Pune by September. He said once the bank launches the mortgage business, instalments will likely get routed through the savings bank account. The bank will lend to customers in the affluent segment to begin with. So, customers looking to buy a house of Rs 75 lakh or more will be financed by DBS.
