OBC to recruit more than 1,500 personnel this fiscal

State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) plans to recruit over 1,500 employees, including officers, during the current fiscal to meet its growth objective.

Talking about the expansion, OBC Chairman and Managing Director Alok K Misra said the bank has applied for 117 branch licences to be opened in the fiscal which will increase its network to 1,500 branches. Of this, 70 licenses have been approved and another 47 branches are expected shortly.

"The bank intends to hire about 1,550 personnel, including 100 marketing managers and 83 agriculture officers during 2009-10 to meet its man power requirements for its proposed branch and business expansion," he said.

The bank had recruited 1,427 personnel, including 191 agricultural officers in 2008-09.

The bank expects credit growth of 20-21 per cent during the current financial year, he said, adding deposits are also expected to grow at the similar pace.

OBC posted net profit growth of 16.72 per cent at Rs 257.41 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 on the back of healthy treasury and fee-based income.

The bank had a net profit of Rs 220.52 crore in the same period ended June 2008.  The non-interest income of the bank grew by 90.71 per cent to Rs 391.89 crore during the first quarter compared to Rs 205.49 crore in the same period last fiscal.

At the same time, the interest income increased by 23 per cent at Rs 2,404 core in the quarter against Rs 1,915 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Total income of OBC rose to Rs 2,796.10 crore in the latest quarter, against Rs 2,159.21 crore, registering an increase of 29.5 per cent.