Corp Bank wants to increase retail loan portfolio to 25 pc

State-run Corporation Bank seeks to increase its retail loan portfolio in the next one year to 25 per cent with more user-friendly strategies, a top executive said today.
"Our focus is retail, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and agriculture. Our growth in all the three areas are above 30 per cent. Retail portfolio is around 15 per cent now which we want to increase to 25 per cent ...", Corporation Bank Chairman and Managing Director S R Bansal told reporters here.
Detailing about the bank's strategy to increase the retail loan portfolio, he said it would be based on opening of retail and SME centres.

"Our products have been made user-friendly. Our vehicle loan rate of interest is 10.65 per cent which may be lower than the industry. The rate of interest on home loan is also about 10.25 per cent ...", he said.
"We feel that these sector loans are better. NPAs are better. If I want to do bigger business, I can do it from our head office itself. But we are now after profitable growth from the grass roots, so we are increasing our network also", he said.
As on December 31, 2013, the bank's SME portfolio stood at Rs 23,069 crore with an year-on-year growth of 31 per cent.

He said the bank plans to open 300 new branches during the current financial year out of which 150 have already been opened.

Answering a query on whether capital infusion was required, he said the bank has adequate capital as the central government infused Rs 450 crore during the current financial year.
"We got Rs 450 crore from the Government of India. In retail loan we were supposed to get 10 per cent of the capital. Against the target of Rs 1,500 crore, we have achieved Rs 1,750 crore. We will get another Rs 175 crore from the government anytime ...", he said.

"With this, the government's stake in the bank will move up to about 63 per cent", he added.