The Hindu Business Line : Centurion Bank of Punjab plans to expand in North — Chooses Finacle for unified tech platform

Mr Anil Jaggia (right), Chief Operating Officer, Centurion Bank of Punjab, and Mr Merwin Fernandes, Vice-President and Business Head - Finacle, Infosys Technologies, at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday. — Paul Noronha

Mumbai , Dec. 6

CENTURION Bank of Punjab will be focusing in the North in terms of branch expansion.

Mr Anil Jaggia, Chief Operating Officer, Centurion Bank of Punjab, said the bank had sought permission from the Reserve Bank of India for more branch licences.

While the bank will be setting up branches pan India, the focus will be on Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Centurion Bank of Punjab will also be setting up an asset reconstruction company, subject to RBI approval.

Mr Jaggia said the bank had appointed a team that had dedicated itself to the setting up of an ARC.

Opts for Finacle: Among its other initiatives as a merged entity, Centurion Bank of Punjab announced its shift to Infosys' Finacle system for core banking solutions.

The bank will replace its current system, Equation from Misys and deploy Finacle core banking, e-banking and CRM solutions as the unified technology platform for the merged entity.

Centurion Bank recently merged with Bank of Punjab.

The erstwhile Bank of Punjab, which has been using the Finacle system, will now be upgrading it to the latest version.

Mr Jaggia said by the end of September 2006, Centurion Bank of Punjab would have a common technology platform.

"With our recent merger, we were looking for a solution that can support our aggressive growth plans, quickly create a unified banking platform for the merged bank and help launch innovative products with faster time to market," said Mr Jaggia.

At present, 12 out of 18 banks, which have opted for core banking solution in the last three years have chosen Finacle.

These include Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, ICICI Bank, UTI bank and IDBI bank.

Currently, the bank has a Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 10.92 per cent.

The bank has plans to raise Rs 800 crore and take the to 21 per cent. Mr Jaggia said they were raising enough capital to support organic as well as inorganic opportunities.

"The Basel II norms will reduce our capital requirements because our large retail portfolio implies less risk weightage," he said.

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