Gold still safe bet

Gold as an investment has flourished in view of the unstable market conditions. Paul Thomas, MD and CEO of ESAF Small Finance Bank, believes that in a stable market people may tend to move towards equity investment. “Gold still has its potential as many prefer it because it is safe and less volatile. Majority of our customers are not showing much inclination towards mutual funds and insurance.”

The gold loan is most safe and attractive loan portfolio of Rajkot District Cooperative Bank. Because of the impact of covid and with less purchasing power across the customer segments, Jayeshbhai Radadiya believes that gold loan portfolio will gradually increase in the next 1-3 years, compared to other loan portfolios of the bank. Says he: “The total amount of gold loans has shot up from ` 1.88 billion in 2017-18 to ` 2.41 billion in 2019-20 and even in the current financial year gold loans of ` 102.8 million have already been added upto

27 May 2020. Many people are without hard cash and require liquid cash urgently because of the uncertain period.”