Mumbai: The country's second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank today launched a rural segment focused gold loan product offering up to 140 per cent finance on the value of the precious metal pledged. The city-headquartered bank, launched the product christened 'Bharosa Gold Loan' at Kochi. The bank said it aims to take the product to 1,300 branches across 950 locations in the country in the next six months to reach out to 10,000 villages having over 5 lakh potential customers, it said in a statement. With prices of gold on the rise, the gold loan segment, which involves lending against deposit of gold with a lender, has attracted finance companies in a big way. "It is estimated that Indian households hold gold stocks of 18,000 tonne. However till now, the lion’s share of this was either lying idle or being pawned to moneylenders at exorbitant rates," the bank's senior executive vice president and business head of the vertical Biju Pillai said.