Idbi To Collect Dvb Bills Dvb
IDBI Bank is entering into an arrangement with the Delhi Vidyut Board under which the bank would act as a collection centre for the electricity bills. The bank is planning to open about 30 collection centres in various parts of Delhi for this purpose.
IDBI Bank managing director Deepak Mukerjee said the bank is in talks with the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for a similar arrangement for accepting telephone bills through its proposed collection centres.
Mukerjee said the bank is also planning tie-ups with various utility bodies in other parts of the country for offering similar services. The move is part of the bank's growth strategy chalked out to compete in the current depressed market conditions.
He said the bank also plans to introduce some innovative automated products to offer `value added' services to its corporate and retail banking customers. The bank has already introduced several automated products like MoneyAccess (anytime money), MoneyLine (anywhere banking), MoneyDial (telebanking), MoneyXpress (instant electronic transfer of funds) and E-Sec account (for holding and trading in dematerialised securities.
On the equity expansion plans of the bank, Mukerjee said the bank board had decided to expand its paid up equity by Rs 40 crore to Rs 140 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) this fiscal. It is currently finalising the merchant banker for the issue, though no exact date has been fixed yet on the launch of the issue.
After the equity expansion, the holding of IDBI in the bank would come down to 75 per cent. `The equity expansion is also needed to increase our asset raising capacities', he pointed out, adding that the current low equity base was preventing the bank from entering into corporate financing segment in a big way.
Currently, the banks long-term corporate financing restricts mainly to investments in the boand and debenture issues and private placements of equities by companies, besides participating in the consortium lending to corporates.
Mr Mukerjee said as part of the network expansion, the bank was planning to open six more branches in the current fiscal. It is, however, yet to finalise the locations for the new branches.