IND: Strengthening Rural Financial Inclusion and Farmer Access to Markets: Axis Bank and Yes Bank

The assistance includes two senior unsecured loans, both up to $200 million to Axis Bank Limited (ABL) and YES Bank Limited (YBL) and a capacity development technical assistance grant of up to $2 million to both ABL and YBL. Both banks will lend the Indian rupee equivalent amount of ADB's aggregate loan disbursements to eligible borrowers to finance working capital and investment loans targeting (i) small farm households, and (ii) rural women, organized in either savings and credit self-help groups (SHGs). The technical assistance will be used by the banks (i) to enhance the supervision and monitoring of their business correspondents, including their internal controls; (ii) to improve the financial literacy of business correspondent-affiliated women SHGs; and (iii) to continue the development of financial service products linking small farmers to markets and loan products targeted to specific regional crops for small farmers.