Small finance bank license applicant UAE Exchange aims to double its credit disbursal to ₹1,000 crore by the end of this financial year.

Originally, a global money transfer service provider, the Abu Dhabi-based company ventured into the loan business in 2008 and now provides gold loans, two-wheeler loans, and personal loans.

During the previous financial year, UAE Exchange’s average loan size was around ₹50,000 with a loan business of about ₹500 crore.

“We intend to double this book size by the end of this financial year,” said V George Antony, Managing Director, UAE Exchange India.

Having applied for a small finance bank licence, Antony says his firm is a “perfect fit” as “except for a few facilities like opening accounts for savings and accepting deposits from the public, we are providing almost all financial services provided by an average bank in India.”

In 2013, UAE Exchange had also applied to the RBI for a full-fledged banking licence, but its application failed to make the cut.

Apart from the small loan vertical, UAE Exchange engages in businesses, including foreign currency exchange, travel and tours, money transfer, and go cash travel card, among others.

Foreign exchange and loans business account for 35 per cent each of its total business. Money transfer and travel tours account for about 15 per cent each of the total business.

“We plan to hire over 700 employees in the current fiscal…We also plan to increase our network of agents and increase our business from agents…,” Antony said. UAE Exchange has close to 4,000 direct employees and a Business Correspondent network of around 5,000 individual agents.

Currently, UAE Exchange has a network of 400 branches across the country and plans to add about 50 branches every year. In 2014-15, it had net profit of ₹30 crore and is aiming at a growth rate of 20-25 per cent for the current fiscal.

In a bid to go digital for all possible services, the company has already rolled out e-KYC recently, thereby reducing time and cost for new accounts and intend to get into the e-wallet area soon, Antony added.

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