The Hindu Business Line : CorpBank to add 100 branches in 2008

Hyderabad, Jan. 2 Corporation Bank will be opening 100 new branches in the calendar year 2008 with focus on western and northern regions of the country.

The bank has already received the approval from the Reserve Bank of India for its biggest expansion initiative, Mr B. Samba Murthy, Chairman and Managing Director, Corporation Bank, told newspersons after the inauguration of its 950th branch in the country at Film Nagar here on Wednesday.

“We are now looking beyond Karnataka and would like to tap the market potential in the western and northern regions. This is in line with our aim of crossing one-lakh-crore mark in our business in 2008,” Mr Murthy said. The current business of the Mangalore-based bank stands at Rs 84,000 crore.

By May 2008, the number of branches would be 1,000 and the remaining branches would be added by December this year, he said.

In view of the fast diversification of investments, the bank is building on its new format branches which house ‘CorpInvest Shoppe’ to cater to varied investment needs of the customers.

“With the opening of today’s branch, we now have three new format braches. We plan to add another 37 before the year-end,” he said.

The bank has also launched its ‘Branchless Banking’ at Shankarpalli near here to conduct transactions through biometric smart card with the help of a business correspondent. It recently completed a survey of 1,200 villages for expanding the smart card scheme, he said.