Bajaj Finance gets NHB nod to start housing finance company

Mumbai: Diversified non-bank lender Bajaj Finance Tuesday said it has received regulatory approvals to set up a housing finance company.

Company MD Rajiv Jain said the housing finance company licence will strengthen its competitive position by giving additional avenues of borrowings, lower risk weights for certain class of loan and allow easier legal repossession.

The Pune-headquartered company had applied to the regulator National Housing Bank for a licence to start the home finance business through a wholly-owned subsidiary last year, it said in a statement.

The NHB granted the licence on September 24 this year, the statement added. This was followed up with receiving certificate of registration on October 2 to commence housing finance business, it informed the stock exchanges.

The company has already been present in the mortgage finance business for nearly seven years and is present in segments like home loans for small businesses and salaried individuals, loans against property, lease rental discounts and developer finance.

The mortgage book had accounted for nearly 40 percent of the company's overall loan book of over Rs 35,000 crore as on June 30.

The company's scrip shed 0.68 percent to close at Rs 5,156.70 a piece on the BSE today, as against the 0.55 percent gains in the broader benchmark.