Private sector lender Dhanlaxmi Bank has indicated that it plans to focus on expanding its retail lending business.

According to CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi, new processess and people have been allocated with the task of managing the retail assets of the bank like mortgage instruments, equipment and auto loan segments, gold loans and many more. The bank targets to increase its retail asset book to Rs 3000 crore by year end which would indicate a five fold increase in the year.

"While interest rates do matter, customers also take speed of loan disbursals into account. If loans can be processed faster, many don't mind paying a slightly higher rate of interest. We want to operate on the two-days-sanction-six-days-disbursement model," said Chaturvedi.

The bank plans to focus less on unsecured loans following the situation observed during global meltdown.

At present, out of the bank's total advances of over Rs 6,000 crore, retail loans account for merely Rs 500 crore.

The bank expects its total advances to grow to Rs 9,000 crore by the end of the current financial year.