Idbi Bank Sets Up 175 Atms In 9 Mths

IDBI Bank has more than doubled its ATM network to 175 from 77 in the past nine months. The bank plans to increase its pace of setting up ATMs at the rate of around one per day to attain its target of 280 by the end of March 2002.

Ajay Bimbhet, country head - retail banking, IDBI Bank, said: "The bank is expanding its ATM network at the rate of more than one ATM per day. Though the bulk of our branches are being opened in the second and the third-tier cities, the ATM networks are spread across all the cities, including the metros." In the second and third-tier cities, the bank is setting up around one to four ATMs per town.

The bank is opening more than 1000 accounts per day. "Our customer base, which stood at 2,70,000 accounts as on March 2001, has gone up to 4,00,000 at present," Bimbhet said. The number of branches has also been increased from 54 to 68.

In a major customer-convenience thrust, the bank will offer its customers, Internet and phone-banking passwords, account number, an ATM card and also a non-personalised cheque book at the time of opening the account itself.

At present, most of the private sector banks and foreign banks are able to send the account number and ATM cards only after a minimum gap of 2-3 weeks.

"We are trying to increase the value proportion for the customer. The customer needs to get his account number and would also want to operate his account immediately. If the form is complete, the account will be activated immediately. If the banks are going to take more than one day to give the customer his account number then technology is not being effectively used," Bimbhet said.

The bank has revamped all its loan products and will spruce up marketing of these products shortly. "We want to improve our presence on the assets side. We have attractively priced our products and will be concentrating on home loans, auto loans, and personal loans. Our housing loans carry one of the lowest interest rate in the industry at 11 per cent for the fixed rate loans," Bimbhet added.