ESAF Small Finance Bank adopts paperless initiative

ESAF Microfinance Bankone of the leading microfinance banks in India, has passed another milestone in its digital journey by adopting electronic signature for microloan disbursement.

As of March 31, ESAF Bank has provided more than 5.27 thousand loans through electronic signatures, demonstrating its commitment to digital transformation. By adopting electronic signatures, ESAF Bank effectively saved reams of paper, which would have been used for disbursing loans, and documents that included handwritten signatures, thus reducing deforestation.

Also read: ESAF Bank net profit increased by 452% in FY23

The bank currently has a customer base of 65 thousand customers, converting 60 percent of small banking customers to the use of electronic signatures, approximately 25 thousand small bank loans, will have a positive impact on the environment by preserving natural resources and reducing the footprint carbonaceous.

K Paul Thomas, Managing Director and CEO of ESAF Bank, said the move to electronic signatures has improved productivity from an employee perspective and convenience from a customer perspective.

The Bank has also implemented solutions to automate and digitize internal processes. It has implemented an office automation tool that automates and digitizes all internal office notes submitted for approval. Furthermore, Branch Operations devised a process to stop printing eight mandatory reports at branch locations. This action saves thousands of papers daily across ESAF Bank’s wide network of 700 branches.