CHENNAI: ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, announced today that it has crossed a milestone of supporting 17 lakh women beneficiaries through the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP) which aims at empowering less privileged women in the state to become self-reliant.
The programme focuses on delivering financial products & services to the section of rural people who lack access to formal banking. As part of the programme, the Bank has extended loans nearly worth Rs 4,300 crore to over 1.3 lakh SHGs since its inception in 2011, making it the largest private sector lender to SHGs in the state.
Avijit Saha, Senior General Manager & Head, Rural & Inclusive Banking Group, ICICI Bank, said, “By the end of FY’20, the Bank intends to expand its reach to over 25 lakh women beneficiaries with cumulative loan disbursements worth more than Rs 7000 crore.”
Self Help Group (SHG) is a term used for a group of 10-20 less privileged women, primarily from rural and semi urban areas, who pool their resources on a periodic basis and use this money for income generating activities like agriculture and allied activities, production of incense sticks, sarees and textile weaving, production of food materials like papad, toy and flower shops at temples, trading artificial jewellery, tailoring, trading in fruits and vegetables among others.
Witnessing SHG programme’s success, ICICI Bank in Tamil Nadu has also been recognised for its performance in SBLP across the state and has been awarded as best banker (SBLP) by the respective District Collector in 12 districts including Ramanathapuram, Cuddalore, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Villupuram, Ariyalur, Dharmapuri, Namakkal, Tuticorin, Trichy, Tiruvannamalai and Tirunelveli.
The Bank helps SHGs across all the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu. The Bank services its customers through a robust retail network of over 480 branches and more than 1500 ATMs across the state.
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