Allahaband Bank to expand in China, enter Singapore

State-run Allahabad Bank is mulling an entry into four Asian cities by opening overseas branches, with a view to increase its international footprint, a top official said.

"We have approached RBI for four new branches. One in Singapore, another in Dhaka, then Shanghai and Kowloon in Hong Kong," Allahabad Bank Chairman and Managing Director J P Dua told PTI here.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to give the go-ahead on the proposal, Dua added.

At present, the Kolkata-headquartered bank's sole overseas branch is in Hong Kong, while it has a representative office in mainland China's city of Shenzen.

Dua also said the bank plans to augment its capital base in the last quarter of the current fiscal, but is yet to decide about the component to be raised and the route to adopt.

The bank is targeting higher-than-industry credit growth of 24-25% for the fiscal, which demands capital augmentation, Dua said.

"We will see in the last quarter, right now we are comfortable. But as growth takes place, capital is always needed," he said.

Dua said apart from utilising the normal routes for tier-I and tier-II augmentation, the bank may again go for a capital infusion from the government, which would increase its majority promoter's shareholding.

"Maybe tier-I, maybe tier-II also and there is a third possibility the government may also induct some funds like last year, (when) they gave us Rs 670 crore," he said.

At present, the total capital adequacy of the bank stands at 12.75%, of which the tier-I component stands at 8.4%, he said.