OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2012. HDFC Bank on Thursday announced a tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. where its rural petrol pump outlets Kisan Seva Kendras (KSKs) will act as the Bank's Business Correspondents (BCs). This is a first of its kind marriage of the strengths of a bank and an oil distribution company to make modern banking services available to the people residing in semi-urban and rural India that remain inaccessible by the current branch network. Beginning with Pilibhit, HDFC Bank plans to cover 1000 KSKs in a phased manner and each of these outlets will be able to serve around 1,500 customers.

This initiative is part of HDFC Bank's Board-approved mandate to bring 10 million families (40 million individuals) into the banking fold. The Kisan Seva Kendra outlets will offer banking services such as preliminary processing of loan applications, disbursal and collection of small value deposits, sale of micro-insurance, mutual funds and other investment instruments.

Commenting on the tie-up, Mr. Michael Andrade, Head, Agri Business, HDFC Bank said, "HDFC Bank has more than 75% of its total branches in tier 2 and tier 3 towns and cities. We take great pride in empowering our customers in semi-urban and rural areas by providing them a wide array of banking products. This initiative in partnership with IOCL is yet another step towards taking banking to the enterprising Indians in the hinterlands. Given IOCL's broad network of rural retail outlets and our bouquet of banking products, this partnership is a win- win for our customers."

"Kisan Seva Kendra is a retail outlet model pioneered by IOCL to cater to the needs of customers in the rural segment. Today, KSK outlets have emerged as dominant players in the rural markets, riding on the rapid growth of upcoming second and third tier roads in the rural areas. The KSKs come with a fresh perspective, enabling dealers to tap the huge demand driven by consumers. This tie-up will allow HDFC Bank to leverage our well-established retail network for the benefit of customers in rural areas and create new avenues for inclusive growth," said Mr. Atul Bhatnagar, DGM, Retail Sales Head, UPSO - 2, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

Promoted in 1995 by Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), India's leading housing finance company, HDFC Bank is one of India's premier banks providing a wide range of financial products and services to its 25 million* customers across hundreds of Indian cities using multiple distribution channels including a pan-India network of branches, ATMs, phone banking, net banking and mobile banking. Within a relatively short span of time, the bank has emerged as a leading player in retail banking, wholesale banking, and treasury operations, its three principal business segments.

The bank's competitive strength clearly lies in the use of technology and the ability to deliver world-class service with rapid response time. Over the last 17 years, the bank has successfully gained market share in its target customer franchises while maintaining healthy profitability and asset quality.

As of June 30, 2012, the Bank had a distribution network with 2,564 branches and 9,709 ATMs in 1,416 localities.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2012, the Bank's total income was INR 95.369 billion ('9,536.9 crore) as against INR 70.98 billion ('7,098 crore) for the quarter ended June 30, 2011. Net revenues (net interest income plus other income) were INR 50.135 billion ('5,013.5 crore) for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, as against INR 39.68 billion ('3,968 crore) for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Net Profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, was INR 14.174 billion ('1,417.4 crore), up by 30.6% over the corresponding quarter ended June 30, 2011.

The Bank's total balance sheet size increased by 25.9% to INR 3,600.01 billion ('360,001 crore) as of June 30, 2012. Total deposits were INR 2,575.31 billion ('257,531 crore) as of June 30, 2012.

Total income for the year ended March 31, 2012, was INR 325.3004 billion ('32,530.04 crore).

Leading Indian and international publications have recognized the bank for its performance and quality.