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Our Bureau

Mangalore , Aug. 28

THE Reserve Bank of India has approved the proposed merger of Albank Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of Allahabad Bank, with the parent body. The merger will be formalised soon by wiping off the accumulated losses of Albank Finance to the extent of Rs 20 crore.

Addressing a press conference here after inaugurating the bank's first ATM `Sugam', the Executive Director of the bank, Mr K.K. Rai, said that this merger would have a positive impact on the balance sheet. He, however, stated that there were no plans for the merger of Allahabad Bank with any other bank and no plans to take over smaller banks. Answering queries about the performance of the bank, Mr Rai said that being a strong player in the rural sector, its credit offtake in the primary sector had improved. As a series of steps had been taken since last year for substantial recovery of NPAs including the enforcement of new Securitisation Act, the bank has issued notices to 1,579 defaulters till June 30 involving an outstanding due of Rs 514.78 crore. Out of this, it has recovered a sum of Rs 21.85 crore from 610 accounts.

It has also set a target of recovering a minimum of Rs 500 crore from NPAs during the current year and also increase the quality of assets by way of dispersion of credit risk through more focus on retail lending activities.

Allahabad Bank has tied up with ICICI-Prudential for life covers and in the general insurance sector, it is poised for tie-up with the Kolkata-based National Insurance Company for direct selling of insurance products as the corporate agent.

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