Vijaya Bank looking at Rs 5,000 crore from NRI accounts

Public sector Vijaya Bank has prepared a blueprint for taking its business from NRI accounts to Rs 5,000 crore by 2011.

At present, NRI accounts contribute almost Rs 1,350 crore to its consolidated business volume.

“We are working on ‘Mission NRI 5000’ to grow to Rs 5,000 crore in the segment by fiscal 2011,” Vijaya Bank Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Albert Tauro told Business Standard.

To mobilise NRI current and savings accounts (CASA), the bank is offering seamless credit to their accounts, and plans to send senior officials to the West Asian countries.

“We plan to grow both in terms of clients and volume in this segment, especially in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, but it would need some seeding time,” he added.

Besides, the bank has taken lead in financial inclusion and branch-less banking by opening almost a million no-frill accounts.

“We will soon launch mobile banking facility and up our number of branches and ATMs to 1,200 and 500, respectively, across India,” Tauro said.

The bank is striving to bring down high cost bulk deposit from 13-15 per cent at present to 10 per cent.

“Our CASA stands at 24 per cent and we are targetting CASA level of 28 per cent by March 2010,” he noted. “The bank has successfully brought down its cost of deposit and raised yield on deposit. This has improved our net interest margin (NIM) from 1.68 to 2.38 per cent,” Tauro informed.

The bank had so far restructured and rescheduled Rs 2,400 crore worth of loans, especially to the MSME, housing and real estate sectors.

The CMD was in town to inaugurate 10 new branches in Lucknow region.

The branches were opened in Lucknow, Badaun, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Pilibhit, Sultanpur and Hathras districts.Vijaya Bank is targetting total branch strength of 90 in UP vis-à-vis 65 at present.