The Hindu Business Line : State Bank of Bikaner to expand

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur is planning to add one more branch each at Tirupur and Coimbatore. It is also contemplating to open a regional office at Chennai to monitor its branches in the South, the bank's Chief General Manager, Mr M. Ramasamy, said.

"We are planning to position ourselves aggressively for rapid business expansion in key centres such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Tirupur and Ernakulam. Our existing branch in Coimbatore is over six decades old and is among the 13 in the South," he said.

The bank has a total branch network of 834 of which four are in Andhra Pradesh, three in Karnataka, one in Kerala and five in Tamil Nadu.

Its total business in South India during the first six months of the current fiscal stood at Rs 1,850.70 crore, accounting for about 5 per cent of its total business. "We planned business growth of Rs 500 crore from these 13 branches this year. We have achieved business volume of Rs 120.66 crore till end-September and are confident of surpassing the target. Retail business is our major plank with thrust on personal segment lending, trade finance, financing to SMEs and the agriculture segment. While we focus on financing high value customers in select cities such as Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, we are proactive in providing finance to the SMEs at Tirupur and Coimbatore," Mr Ramasamy said.

The regional office at Chennai, he said was proposed for effective monitoring of its branches in the South and for accelerating business growth.