Canara Bank to expand in the north

Canara Bank, the second-largest public sector bank in India, has plans to open 28 branches in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

According to the chairman and managing director of bank, A C Mahajan, the bank got over 100 licences from the RBI for branch expansion and about a third of these would be in the north.

Mahajan said Delhi contributed about Rs 50,000 crore to the bank’s business last year, which was the largest from any one part of the country. This was followed by Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

Confident about the credit offtake despite not so bright a scenario of the economy, Mahajan said power, ports, hotels and roads were the main drivers of the growth of banking.

He added the bank got 100 licences from the Reserve Bank of India for expansion in India and five licences for overseas branches in South Africa (Johannesburg) and West Asia. "We are waiting for approval of the local operators for overseas expansion," he added.

He said the bank recorded a business of Rs 2,61,000 crore in March 2008 and the present business of the bank was about Rs 2,72,000 crore.

He said the target for this year was Rs 3,10,000 crore.

According to Mahajan, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank are 1.37 per cent and net NPAs were 0.8 per cent.

In over 60 per cent of branches in rural and semi-urban areas, the bank has over 2,000 ATMs.

Canara Bank put up nine bio-metric voice-enabled ATMs in Karnataka, which will be replicated in other states depending on how successful they are.

The bank has decided to open 50 no-frills accounts per branch for financial inclusion in the Union Territory of Chandigarh to help about 10,000 families living below the poverty line.