ESAF Small Finance Bank


ESAF Small Finance Bank is an Indian small finance bank providing banking services and small loans to the underbanked.
ESAF started its operations as an NGO in 1992 as Evangelical Social Action Forum. Before becoming a bank, ESAF was a non-banking finance company and microfinance institution, licensed by the Reserve Bank of India and headquartered in Thrissur city of Kerala.

History and operations

On 11 March 1992, K. Paul Thomas, along with Mereena Paul and a few friends, started ESAF in a small house in Mannuthy named "Little". Jacob Samuel, one of the co-founders, coined the name ESAF, which is an acronym for Evangelical Social Action Forum. At inception, ESAF had five life members, seven annual members and eight honorary members. ESAF society was registered under the Travancore Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act. The initial president was Itty Mathew; J. Danabai was the vice president, Thomas was the secretary, supported by Samuel as joint secretary and Arun Ramakrishnan as treasurer.
ESAF started lending in 1995 as the first microfinance company in Kerala. It became ESAF Small Finance Bank after receiving the first banking license in Kerala since independence.
On 17 March 2017, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala officially inaugurated ESAF Small Finance Bank at Thrissur, Kerala. By August 2017, the bank had 3,750 employees, 284 branches, and a presence in 11 states.
In March 2018, a year after its launch, the bank had expanded to 4,000 employees and 400 branches, with crore in deposits and crore in loans.
ESAF Small Finance Bank received RBI approval to operate as scheduled bank in December 2018, making the Thrissur-based ESAF Small Finance Bank the fifth scheduled bank from Kerala after Federal Bank, South Indian Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, and Dhanlaxmi Bank. This will reduce the bank's cost of funds, while increasing the bank's ability and obligation to provide services. The bank's net profit increased to crore in the 2018-2019 financial year from crore the previous year.

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