Mumbai: Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank recently announced its collaboration with ITC Limited to offer the Bank’s lending products and services to farmers who are a part of ITC’s agriculture eco-system. This partnership will enable Axis Bank to cater to the financial requirements of the unserved and under-served farmers based in the remote regions of the country. The Bank will offer a wide range of assets and liability products such as farmer loans, gold loans etc.
Axis Bank will leverage ITCMAARS (Meta Market for Advanced Agricultural Rural Services), a full-stack Agri-tech application for reaching out to the farmers and addressing their financial requirements. Additionally, it will also offer an extensive range of products and services to the farmers through its rural-urban and semi-urban (RUSU) branches located across 656 districts of India.
Speaking about the partnership, Munish Sharda - Group Executive & Head - Bharat Banking, Axis Bank said, ‘’At Axis Bank, we have been consistently working towards ensuring that all segment of customers based across the RUSU markets are provided with easy access to credit facility and banking solutions. This partnership is in alignment with our Bank’s Bharat Banking mission of extending our reach in the remote regions and providing them with seamless customer experience. With the help of ITCMAARS strong and enduring relationship with over millions of farmers, we believe that we can make a significant contribution in uplifting financial situation of the community thereby unlocking the true potential of Bharat…’’
Rajnikant Rai, Divisional Chief Executive, Agri Business Division, ITC Ltd said, “ITC has over the years spearheaded multi-dimensional interventions to transform the lives of farmers, powered by the ITC e-Choupal eco-system that connects with over 4 million farmers. Taking a step forward, to bring the power of digital revolution to farmers, we have now implemented ITCMAARS a phygital eco-system that provides a range of solutions through Hyperlocal and personalised advisory, Agri- Inputs, Financial services and Market linkages.
We are happy to partner with Axis Bank to extend banking solutions to the farmers we have engaged with over the years. Timely availability of institutional credit will enable the farmer to buy quality Inputs which will help in improving productivity and enhance farm incomes.”
Through this initiative, Axis Bank aims to further scale up its Bharat Banking strategy by increasing the new-to-bank accounts in FY22-23. The Bank has delivered strong growth across key metrics. As on December 31st, 2022, its rural advances grew by 27% YOY, disbursement increased by 12% YOY and deposit grew by 16% YOY.
