Kolkata: Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has inaugurated first private Bandhan Bank as full-fledged lender along with 501 branches across the country.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has inaugurated the Bandhan Bank operations at the Science City Auditorium in Kolkata, in the presence of supervisors, policymakers and luminaries from the financial sector and corporate India.

Bandhan Bank has started its operation as a full -fledged commercial bank along with 501 branches across the country and it became the newest member of the estimated $2-trillion Indian banking industry. Bandha Bank has started its operations across 24 states in country along with 501 branches, 2022 service centers and 50 ATM centers.

According sources, the bank has 1.43 crore accounts, a loan book of around Rs 10,500 crore and 19,500 employees. The bank is planning to extend it services to across 27 states in country along with 672 branches, 250 ATM centers by the end of this financial year 2015-16.

After the inauguration, the bank has said that over 71 percent of the branches will be operated in rural India out of which 35 percent will be at un banked rural areas in India. The Kolkata headquartered bank has two divisions including Micro and General banking and it will offer complete retail financial solutions along with variety of savings and loan products.

According to sources, West Bengal has the maximum number of branches 220 and Bihar has 67, Assam at 60, Maharashtra at 21, Uttar Pradesh at 20 Tripura at 20 and Jharkhand at 15