Axis Bank partners with ITC to offer rural lending products to farmers
1 min read . Updated: 09 Mar 2023, 02:50 PM IST
Premium- Under the tie-up, the 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.
The third largest private sector lender in India, Axis Bank on Thursday joined hands with FMCG giant ITC to offer lending products and services to farmers who are a part of ITC's agriculture eco-system. The partnership is expected to enable Axis Bank in reaching out to the unserved and under-served farmers based across rural regions.
Axis Bank will offer a host of credit facilities for rural lending products like Farmer Funding loans & Gold Loans with easy access.
Under the tie-up, the 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.
Also, Axis Bank will 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.
On this development, Munish Sharda - Group Executive & Head - Bharat Banking, Axis Bank said, "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...’’
While 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."
With this initiative, Axis Bank aims to further scale up its Bharat Banking strategy by increasing the new-to-bank accounts in FY22-23.
As of December 31, 2022, Axis Bank has delivered strong growth across key metrics -- with its rural advances increasing by 27% YOY, disbursement up by 12% YOY, and deposit with a growth of 16% YOY.
On BSE, at the time of writing, Axis Bank shares traded at ₹869.70 apiece up by 1.08%. However, ITC shares performed at ₹387.80 apiece down by 1.15%.
