SKS Microfinance,

SKS Microfinance, India's largest and world's fastest growing microfinance and ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, completed a unique securitisation deal worth Rs.200 crore which allows the bank to purchase loans extended to weaker sections.

The transaction is a major step forward in financial inclusion since the program will deliver income-generating loans of averaging Rs.9,500 to over 2,00,000 unbanked families belonging to SC, ST and minorities identified by the RBI as 'weaker section' and hence a priority. The partnership combines SKS' robust customer acquisition and management model with ICICI's extensive experience in financial structuring for microfinance institutions, networks and investors in emerging markets to fulfil a shared objective of greater financial inclusion and poverty alleviation through commercially viable and sustainable lending programs.

Announcing this landmark transaction, Mr. S. Dilli Raj, CFO of SKS Microfinance said, "For the first time in the MFI history, a pool comprising receivables exclusively from the weaker sections of the society is securitised and placed with ICICI Bank. We will continue to manage these receivables for ICICI Bank through the term of these receivables. This structure achieves amalgam of the "Funding capability' of a Banking giant like ICICI and the "Credit Delivery Skills' of SKS.

SKS Microfinance currently has a member base of 3.6 million and has disbursed loans worth Rs 5,788 crore. It has 1,373 branches across 18 Indian states.