HDFC Bank offers instant loans against mutual funds

MUMBAI: In a move that will enable its customers with mutual fund investments to get instant credit, HDFC Bank has tied up with CAMS (Computer Age Management Services) — a registrar and transfer agent — to provide automated loans against units. Arvind Kapil, head of unsecured loans and home loans at HDFC Bank, said that he expected rapid growth as the bank has automated the loan process which could be availed by account holders through desktop or mobile banking.

The lender is currently distributing Rs 1,000 crore of personal loans over its digital platform. “We account for half of the personal loans in the industry and 25-30 per cent of our personal loans are digitally sourced,” said Kapil. He added that the bank already had a Rs 10,000-crore portfolio of loans against securities and half of it was disbursed digitally.

CAMS manages the accounts for most of the mutual funds in the country and has a 65 per cent market share. The tie-up enables HDFC Bank provide a bridge between its own portal and that of CAMS enabling unitholders to create a lien on their investments and get instant overdraft. Currently the loans will be available to ten fund houses and for schemes approved by the bank. Eventually the bank plans to expand to all fund houses. The loans will be available for up to 50per cent of the customers investment and interest on these loans would go up to 11per cent.

Indian investors have Rs 23.25 lakh invested in mutual funds. However, borrowing against mutual funds is not that easy given that as most of these investments are in the form of accounts with the asset management company unlike shares which are held in two depositories. By partnering CAMS, HDFC Bank has made it easier to get a lien on mutual fund units with the loan being granted in the form of an overdraft into a current account which is automatically created.

HDFC Bank