Commercial Aspects of SHG Banking in India

Abstract

Nabard’s Linking Banks and Self-Help Groups: with an outreach to 500, 000 SHGs and a population of 40m rural poor, it is the largest non-directed microsavings & microcredit programme in the developing world.Is it a commercial proposition for the 17, 000 participating bank branches, and perhaps for another 20, 000 who might join the program to reach a population of 100m by 2008? This paper presents a methodology for the study of financial products, applied to seven units of three banks in October 2002. [Paper presented at the Seminar on SHG-bank Linkage Programme at New Delhi on 25th and 26th November 2002.]