The Hindu Business Line : Allahabad Bank plans more branches in South

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Kolkata Feb. 7 Allahabad Bank proposes to open more branches in the southern region. Right now, the bank has only 82 branches in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka out of a total branch network of 2,046 all over the country.

"We would like to have at least 200 branches in these four States as early as possible," Mr A.C. Mahajan, CMD of the bank, told Business Line recently. In Kerala, for example, the bank has only six branches but the number, according to the CMD, should be at least 20. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, it should have at least 60-65 branches each. At present there are 31 branches in Tamil Nadu, 26 in Andhra Pradesh and 19 in Karnataka.

But then he conceded that opening more than 100 branches within a short period might not be an easy job.

Acquisition plan

Referring to its earlier plan to acquire another bank, he said: "it is difficult to grow through the acquisition route without the support of the regulators." Allahabad Bank had earlier set its eyes on United Western Bank which was subsequently snapped up by IDBI Bank.

Among his other priorities included implementation of the technical upgradation plan as per schedule and improving the skill of the employees.

Core banking

Right now the bank has only five branches under CBS (core banking solutions) but the plan is to cover as many as 400 by 2007-08 and a total of 900 by March 2009.

"These branches account for 85 per cent of the bank's total business," he said. Once the CBS was in place as per plan, it should be possible to provide other services such as e-banking and on-line broking business. One way to upgrade the skill of the employees, he felt, would be through direct recruitment of professionals. "A beginning has already been made with IT professionals and we also have similar plans for credit officers in scale III and scale IV categories," he said.

The job profiles of officers and employees, he said, would become more or less the same once the CBS had been fully implemented. This would call for extensive training programmes for bank employees at various levels. Currently, the bank has five training centres and the sixth one, particularly for providing IT-related training, would be operational soon near Mumbai at Vasi, the location of its headquarters for CBS.