HDFC palmtop bankers reach 8,000 customers on foot

Palmtop bankers of the HDFC Bank reach 8,000 customers a day on foot said Chairman HDFC Bank Siromi Wickramasinghe. HDFC Bank - the licensed specialised bank introduced this novel scheme to go to the doorstep of the customer rather than wait for the customer to come to the bank.

This method helps to improve the savings ratio of the country which is very low. She said that daily wage earners and even businessmen don’t have the time to visit a bank while some are reluctant to go to a bank.

But when a person goes to their doorstep they are comfortable and have made this a habit to deposit their savings. They even call to inquire if the person doesn’t visit them.

She said that the bank is in the process of permitting their palmtop bankers to accept loan instalments as well as accept the payment of utility bills. The technology was developed in-house while the target group is low and middle income groups.

She said that their largest shareholder is NHDA but now private investors are also interested as they see great potential in our bank.

Housing is one of the main national needs of the government and the target is to build between 350,000 - one mln houses within the next five years.

We can and will play a major role to support the government achieve the target with our 28 branch network. The staff is well trained to handle all the needs of customers who come to us. Ms Wickremasinghe said that after the end of the conflict there is a major demand for housing loans from the North and the East.

HDFC holds a substantial percentage in the entire housing finance market, HDFC’s primary objective has always been to serve low and middle income groups to meet their needs of housing finance and allied services. With the majority of the population in Sri Lanka coming under these income categories, there’s a palpable lack of supply to meet the demand for housing.

According to Sri Lanka Development Policy Review 2002 by World Bank, 55 percent of the rural population and 8 percent of the urban population live below the poverty line and on average, 15 percent of the total population survive below the universal poverty line, with an income that’s totally insufficient to meet the cost of housing.

The majority of the population coming under this category has to contend with restricted access to credit facilities offered by commercial banks or financial institutions due to inadequate collateral and proof of income.

To bridge the gap, more than 75 percent of the approved loans are granted by HDFC to low and middle income groups, while about 44 percent of the loans approved is for less than Rs. 200,000.

Loans between Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 500,000 are accounted at 32 percent. “The emphasis on this distribution of the loan portfolio reflects our broadened view of social responsibility toward servicing the needy groups of the country.