After overhauling its IT infrastructure to set up digital banking departments internally, public sector lender Bank of Baroda is now targeting at least 65% of retail originations and 35% of MSME loans (value-wise) to be done digitally by the end of the current fiscal year. The bank is also targeting ₹50,000 crore of digital lending in the current fiscal year.

“We believe that this year we will disburse loans of over ₹50,000 crore through our digital bank this year alone,” said Akhil Handa, chief digital officer, Bank of Baroda. “This will be a combination of retail (home, auto, personal) loans and small ticket MSME loans (

loans and small ticket business loans). We have a substantial advantage over peer banks that are getting started with their digital journey.”

Handa added that at least ₹35,000 crore-₹40,000 crore will come from lending to the retail sector, while the balance will be contributed by the MSME segment.

At present, 50% of the bank’s retail loans are sourced digitally. Out of this, 97% of the bank’s personal loans are disbursed end-to-end digitally while the bulk of the home loan originations is done digitally. About 90% of all new retail accounts were done digitally. “About 65% of retail and 35% of MSME will be digital this year. Our thrust is on the personal loan product and looking at the present run rate that alone will help us reach our lending goal,” Handa said.

The public sector lender is also aiming to onboard 25% of new retail customers through mobile banking and book 25% of its deposits through this mode.

Last year, the bank rolled out a digital lending department that will digitise half of its ₹6.4 lakh crore balance sheet, including retail, MSME and agriculture. The bank expects the move toward digitisation would help it bring down the cost of operations by 25%.

Recently, the Bank launched ‘bob World’, its all-new digital banking platform, which is aimed at providing an all-inclusive and seamless virtual banking experience.

The bank presently has 20 million active users on its mobile app, with plans to reach 30 million customers in a year’s time. It’s aiming that nearly 50% of its non-financial inclusion customers will use this app as a primary interface. “Our market share of mobile banking application downloads is 11.5% which is twice our market share of retail customer deposits, which is 5.5-6%,” Handa said.