Equitas Holdings became the first entity to receive RBI’s final approval to operate a small finance bank. The new bank is expected to start operations by September. P.N. Vasudevan, MD, Equitas Holdings said the company is planning to launch the bank by September or October. He said the SFB will be profitable from the first year onwards despite it incurring around Rs 100 crore additionally every year. Its major strength would be its ability to service the informal economy through a process and system, he added. The increase in expenditure is mainly due to relocation of the existing branches and additional staff cost. But over the period as the cost of funds will come down it will not only compensate the increase, it will also help the bottom line. Equitas has some 9,000 employees. It will have to add more staff and also set up branches, which will be the two heads of expenditure, according to Vasudevan. Of the total branches around 50% are in South, 30% in the West and the rest in North.
