Demonetisation effect: Dena Bank expanding digital footprint

It is targetting reaching out to agricultural & MSME segments to inject its deposits in the market

Public sector Dena Bank is taking steps to expand its digital footprint following demonetisation and the sudden surge in low-cost deposits.

The bank had mopped up about Rs 20,000 crore pan-India during November and December 2016 after demonetisation was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), the bank had clocked deposits of about Rs 328 crore during the period, Dena Bank Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Kumar said in Lucknow on Tuesday.

The bank has drawn up a roadmap to hold credit camps and digital awareness programmes to offer loans to prospective customers, and is aggressively rolling out point of sales (PoS) machines among small retailers.

"UP is an important market for us. We plan to put 10,000 PoS machines in place by end March 2017," Kumar said.

The bank currently operates 84 branches across 33 districts in UP and plans to expand the network to over 100 by the end of March 2018.

Its total business in UP is to the tune of Rs 3,357 crore, including Rs 2,261 crore and Rs 696 crore in deposits and advances respectively.

Kumar said the bank had numerous digital offerings, including mobile banking, tab banking and the recently launched e-wallet service.

The bank is targetting reaching out to the agricultural and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) segments to inject its deposits in the market.

Besides, Kumar said the advances target of the bank had not been restructured in the backdrop of demonetisation. "In fact, the Bank has been able to recoup almost Rs 100 crore in non-performing assets (NPA) accounts over the last couple of months," he added.

Meanwhile, Kumar handed over 106 PoS machines to merchants and sanctioned loans of Rs 118 crore across 350 accounts here.