Bank Of Baroda To Spend Rs 300 Crore On It

Bank of Baroda (BoB) will spend Rs 300 crore on information technology over two-three years, said P S Shenoy, chairman and managing director.

The bank has also zeroed in on a strategic partner for its credit card business. The chairman, however, declined to divulge the name of the partner.

The bank is also looking for a partner for its mutual fund business. Shenoy said: "For the mutual fund subsidiary, we were approached by a number of parties. But, we are waiting for the Reserve Bank of India's nod for our insurance business. We want the same partner for insurance as well as mutual fund business."

 

Shenoy, who spoke at a press meet to announce the launch of bank's revamped website here today, said that of the Rs 300 crore, Rs 100 crore will be spent on core banking, Rs 50 crore on net banking, Rs 100 crore on ATMs and rest on other purpose. Shenoy said: "The focus of the bank is on providing better services to customers and information technology will play a great role in that," he said.

BoB at present has only 26 ATMs. Shenoy said the bank is looking at increasing the number to 500 ATMs in three years. Shenoy, however, said that before increasing the number of ATMs, the bank will look at the inter-connectivity of its and existing ATMs.

"Without the inter-connnectivity, it does not make much sense to have large number of ATMs," Shenoy said. The bank at present has 290 branches, which have intra-city connectivity. The bank is looking at introducing inter-city connectivity as well.

Shenoy informed that 100 per cent of its metro branches and 98 per cent of its urban branches are computerised. The CMD said that, though technology-wise revamping of the website is a small step, it a quantum leap for the banks towards providing better service to the customer.

Shenoy said the bank is ready for the real time gross settlement system. It has already made an arrangement for negotiated dealing system.