Syndicate Bank Plans Corporate Office In Blore

Syndicate Bank has decided to create a corporate office in Bangalore to provide fillip to its growth while retaining its head office and other sections at Manipal, the banks place of origin.

We have decided to move the chairmans and executive directors offices, secretariat, credit and recovery and other operational wings to the new corporate office, top management sources said. The bank is at an advanced stage of negotiations with a PSU to get accommodation here, the sources added.

Allaying apprehensions that the bank would shift its operations from Manipal, a director of the bank said: Only operational wings and CMD-ED sections will move to Bangalore for better functioning. He said logistics makes it imperative to have a corporate office in the state headquarters rather than at a remote place.

 

The shifting of some essential operations from Manipal to Bangalore had assumed political overtones when two Bharatiya Janata Party members of parliament from the area opposed the move. Both the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government have taken a sympathetic view on the banks plans to retain its head office, registered office and some operations in Manipal, while creating a corporate office at Bangalore.

The state government has also been cajoling the banks top brass for years to have a corporate office in Bangalore. Syndicate Bank is the lead bank for the state and its chairman heads the state level bankers committee (SLBC). The banks top brass has been trying to convince leaders of the industry and political parties in coastal Karnataka the imperative of the move. According to a director at the bank, the concept of retaining the head office-cum-registered office and other operations in Manipal, while shifting CMD-ED and credit-cum-recovery wings to Bangalore has been accepted by all.

Officers and other staff of the bank too have accepted this move as they are convinced that it is the only way to survive in the tough competitive environs, the director added.

In fact the first one to moot the idea of shifting the chairmans office and a few key operational wings to Bangalore was R Raghupati, chairman of the bank, a decade ago. The proposal did not succeed as the management failed to take everybody into confidence and convince the concerned about the need for such a move.

With the bank making profits for the third consecutive year and the dynamism infused by the new CMD K V Krishnamurthy, the move has gained momentum, said a top official of the bank. He said the banks board, which is slated to meet on May 4 in Mumbai, will give a green signal to make the move official.

Last year Syndicate Bank had earned a profit of Rs 98 crore and provisional figures for the year ending March 1998 showed it can end up with around Rs 112-crore profit.