Central Bank To Connect 203 Units By June

Central Bank of India hopes to link up 203 branches across 170 locations in the country by June, thus covering around 60 per cent of its business.

The inter-branch connectivity, which is being implemented by CMC, through a wide area network, will not only offer multi-branch banking facility to customers, but also allow the bank to build up a centralised database for management information system.

Further, the bank is also seeking to computerise its rural and semi-urban branches, which comprise nearly two-thirds of its 3,100-branch network.

"Going rural has become the mantra for the financial service sector and the move to go in for partial branch automation is to strengthen and upgrade the quality of service in rural and semi-urban areas," K Raghuraman, general manager, said.

Another thrust area for the bank will be the setting up offsite ATMs at locations where it does not have a physical presence, he said.

The bank has hired the Hyderabad-based Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology as a consultant for its technology initiatives. The institute has the expertise in drawing up long-term perspective plan and infotech policy for banks, setting up enterprise-wide networks and data warehousing and data mining.

As part of the its 'Vision 2005' plan, the bank has set a deposits target of Rs 87,000 crore and an advances portfolio of Rs 51,500 crore by March 31, 2001. As on March 31, 2001 its deposits stood at Rs 41,518 crore while the advances was at Rs 18,833 crore.

The bank plans to bring down its net non-performing assets to net advances ratio from 9.72 per cent as on March 31, 2001 to 1.83 per cent as on March 31, 2005. The operating profit and net profit targets by March 31, 2005 are Rs 2,427 crore and Rs 718 crore against Rs 470 crore and Rs 46 crore, respectively, as on March 31, 2001.