Apex Bank aims at 14% growth in deposit base

Sees it rising to Rs 5,150 crore this fiscal.

Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank is planning to increase its deposit base by 14 per cent to Rs 5,150 crore in the present financial year as compared to Rs 4,479 crore in the last fiscal.

The bank is also planning to disburse Rs 4,096 crore of agricultural credit during this fiscal, of this Rs 1,950 crore has already been disbursed in the first five months of the present fiscal.

“We are hopeful that both our credit and deposit target will be achieved this year on the back of an encouraging response from customers,” S N Jayaram, managing director, The Karnataka State Co-operative Apex Bank, said on the sidelines of the 85th annual general body meeting here.

He also said that the bank was planning to open nine new branches in the city during present fiscal.

The apex cooperative bank has 31 branches in the city and has received approval from the RBI to open another nine branches.

“The capital expenditure for opening these branches will be in the range of Rs 2 crore,” he added.

The bank will also float tender to shift overall banking operation to core banking mode in the near future.

“The expenditure for rolling out core banking will be around Rs 2-3 crore in the present fiscal,” he said.

About the impact of the recent hike in policy rates by RBI, he said the cost of borrowing for the bank would not rise as there was less refinancing need for the lender from commercial banks.

The bank, which has entered into an agreement with the Oriental Insurance Company for marketing various general insurance products, has no plans to enter into life insurance space in the near future, Jayarama said.

The bank will also provide ATM facilities in the near future, he added.

The cooperative bank will also increase its disbursements to the self-help groups this year.

“We aim to disburse a bank credit of Rs 500 crore to 33,500 SHGs during the present fiscal which is 77 per cent rise over last year,” he said.