Vijaya Bank to set up 350 new ATMs

Mangalore-headquartered public sector Vijaya Bank is planning to set up 350 new ATMs across the country during the next fiscal. The bank currently has 170 ATMs.

This apart, it has begun negotiations with other banks for sharing of the ATM network, Prakash P Mallya, chairman and managing director, Vijaya Bank, told mediapersons.

Mallya on Wednesday opened the 955th branch of the bank at Visakhapatnam.

"Our 1000th branch will come up within two to three months from now," he added.

In the current year, the bank had opened around 70 new branches across the country, and proposes to add another 50 during the next fiscal, most of which would come up in the northern states.

The bank is targeting to cover all the branches under CBS (core banking solution) by March 2009.

It launched Finacle-supported CBS during the year 2004, and currently 455 business outlets covering over 78 per cent of the total business of the bank are under the core banking coverage. By 2007, it sees this at 80 per cent and cent per cent by March 2009.

Vijaya Bank's total business as of March 2006 stood at Rs 44,700 crore. It expects to touch the Rs 60,000-crore mark by March 2007 and Rs 1 lakh crore by 2010, he said.

In the current year up to December, it posted Rs 267.69 crore net profit, up 65.84 per cent compared with the corresponding period last fiscal.

By March end, Mallya said the profits would touch Rs 325 crore. The bank collected about Rs 270 crore old dues and reduced the net NPA to 0.49 per cent during the year.