Canara Bank to open branches in Johannesburg, Frankfurt by March 2014

The Bank has received regulatory approvals in South Africa and waiting for nod from German regulator

Bangalore-based public sector lender Canara Bank plans to expand its overseas branch network during the current fiscal. It is set to open a branch at Johannesburg in South Africa and Frankfurt in Germany by end of this fiscal.

 

“We have received approval from Reserve Bank of India and Central Bank of South Africa to open our first branch in South Africa by December this year. Our officials were in Johannesburg last week to finalise the location and building,” R K Dubey, chairman and managing director, Canara Bank told Business Standard.

 

He said the bank is awaiting regulatory approvals in Germany for opening a branch in Frankfurt, which is likely to happen by March 2014.

 

Presently, Canara Bank has five overseas branches – two in United Kingdom, one each in Bahrain, Shanghai and Hong Kong. These branches together contribute about 4.5% of the bank’s total business of Rs 6,31,863 crore as of June 2013. The Bank also has a joint venture with State Bank of India in Moscow for commercial banking operations. The bank has 40 per cent stake in the JV.

 

In addition to South Africa and Germany, the bank plans to open branches at 12 other overseas centres - DIFC (Dubai), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Tokyo (Japan), Abuja (Nigeria), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Qatar Financial Centre (Qatar), New York (USA), Sydney(Australia), Ontario (Canada), Wellington (New Zealand) and Singapore by March 2015.

 

Canara Bank has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India for opening a branch in Dubai. “We will be making an application through our consultant in Dubai in two weeks’ time. For opening a branch in Frankfurt, we have started the process of securing approval from the regulators in Germany. We have filed an application with Bundesbank, one of the three regulators in that country,” a senior official of the Bank said.

 

Besides overseas expansion, the Bank also plans to open 500 new branches during the current financial year in India. “Over a period of next one and a half year, the Bank plans to achieve a milestone of 5,000 branches. Currently, we have 3,770 branches. Our ATM network is planned to be increased from 3,754 to 10,000 by March 2015. We are specifically looking at expanding our branch network in the northern, eastern and western parts of the country. We have taken approval from RBI to expand the network,” Dubey said.

 

The Bank aims to reach an aggregate business of more than Rs 7 lakh crore, with deposit growth of  15-17% and advances growth of 16-18% during the current fiscal (2013-14).