Has applied for corporate agency licence
Amit Chettupuzha
KOCHI: Fedbank Financial Services Ltd (Fedfina), a leading retail focused NBFC specializing in gold, mortgage and business loans, is all set to ramp up its other income through cross selling other products.
“We have already applied for corporate agency licence and I hope we will get it in May or latest by June, so that Fedfina can start cross selling other products like health insurance and life insurance policies to our own customers,” said Anil Kothuri MD and CEO of the company while talking to analysts yesterday (April 29).
Cross selling is now gaining traction as a popular gameplan followed by financial institutions, especially banks to boost their revenue in order to stay afloat in a market that has becoming too competitive.
Some banks have become too active in cross selling insurance products resulting misselling financial products to unsuspecting customers.
There were cases where some leading banks have been penalized for failing to observe caution while selling insurance products aggressively.
Profit soars
Fedfina has reported a net profit of Rs67.7 crore for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2024 compared with Rs39 crore for the same period a year ago, measuring a 73 per cent growth.
Fedfina opened 12 new branches during the fourth quarter, increasing the total branch count to 621.The company has strengthened gold loan co-lending arrangement with two banks. With this the co-lending assets under management (AUM) has reached Rs5,22.1 crore as of March 31, 2024.
Commenting on the performance, Anil Kothuri said that the last quarter was a busy one where the company saw record disbursals, improving quality as well as higher profitability.
“We continued to make strides towards realising our mission to empower emerging India with easy access to loans,” he added.
Federal Bank that used to hold 74 per cent stake in Fedfina prior to the initial public offering (IPO) that hit the market in November last, currently holds close to 62 per cent in the company.
Branch expansion
Fedfina aims to increase its branch net work further by adding another 50 gold loan branches and 30 small mortgage locations during the year in order to give a push to its ambitious expansion plan.