CanBank offers new product

Canara Bank will launch on Friday, 'CanRelax", an annuity product, as part of its centenary year celebrations, chairman and managing director M B N Rao, told reporters here on Thursday.

The scheme is open to all, and with minimum one time deposits of Rs 1 lakh will pay interest of 6.5 per cent.

There is no upper limit and customers can choose to get the payout, comprising both interest and prinicipal, from the next month itself or choose to leave the money in place, and time the payouts to their convenience. The maximum period over which the payouts will be made was 10 years, Rao said.

General managers at the bank said, there was no target set for itself in terms of mobilisation of deposits through CanRelax.

"This is more a social service we wish to do to celebrate 100 years of the bank", by giving customers interest rates of five-year term deposits. But overall the bank has set itself the target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore of total business, Rao said.

On mergers and acquisitions, Rao said, "If the bank's history is an indication, having acquired 11 banks to date, then that is also a way to grow." Overseas, the bank was looking to convert two offices to branches, in China and Hong Kong. South Africa, West Asia and North America were other regions where the bank wanted to open branches, he said.

Centenary year activities, which will be flagged off on Friday by Finance Minister P Chidambaram include improving basic infrastructure in 23 villages, one each in its "23 lead districts across the country".

The bank will also dole out grants to some NGOs, and build an extension to the Sevakshetra hospital in Bangalore.

All this will cost some Rs 20 crore, Rao said.