Indian Bank to expand in North India

Public sector Indian Bank, which has almost two-thirds of its branch network based in southern India, primarily Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, will now expand footprint in the northern parts of the country.

The Chennai-based Bank has licences to open 175 new branches to add to its current tally of over 1,800, which would materialise in 12 months.

“We will now expand our footprint in regions, where we have sparse presence, especially North India,” Indian Bank CMD T M Bhasin told Business Standard here.

Further, Indian Bank will open its third overseas branch in Jaffna, Sri Lanka after Singapore and Colombo.

The Bank is also on an expansion spree in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and a new circle office in western Uttar Pradesh. “We will open 19 more branches in the two states in the current financial year, which would take up our network strength to about 85,” he said. The Bank is eyeing a total business of Rs 2,800 crore in the region. Pan-India, the Bank is targeting to add one million new accounts to reach 25 million customer base by March 2011. Total business of the Bank is about Rs 1,70,000 crore, including advances and deposits of Rs 74,000 crore and Rs 96,000 crore respectively.

“Our CASA levels are comfortable at 34 per cent vis-à-vis the banking sector average of 30 per cent,” Bhasin said adding Indian Bank would increase its ATM strength to 1,250. Indian Bank has a dedicated focus on self help groups (SHG) and has a credit disbursement portfolio of over Rs 1,900 crore.

“We are targeting to benefit a total of 5.5 lakh SHGs and increase our credit portfolio to Rs 2,500 by the end of FY10,” he said. Under the financial inclusion programme, the Bank had already covered over 5,500 villages in 19 states. He was in town to hold review meetings.