The Hindu Business Line : Bank of India plans 100% financial inclusion in Bengal

Till March 26 of the current quarter, Bank of India posted a lower credit growth at 26.7 per cent (on year-to-year basis) vis-À-vis 30 per cent as on March 31, 2007, and 29.9 per cent as on December 31, 2007.

“However, this should not be a matter of concern,” Mr Vijay Mehta, General Manager of the bank in-charge of the eastern zone, told newspersons here on Saturday, explaining that the present growth was on a higher base. Also, the slide was temporary, caused mainly by the repayment of some big advances.

What had been particularly impressive for the bank was the very low net NPA (non-performing assets) ratio at less than 0.6 per cent, thanks to the bank’s robust risk management policy.

The capital adequacy ratio currently placed at 12.52 per cent might change in view of the enforcement of Basel II norm shortly.

“We’ve to make provisioning also for operational risks once the Basel II norms came into force,” he observed.

In the West Bengal zone, the credit growth till February-end was 21 per cent at Rs 4,405 crore (year-to-year). It would post a significant growth in the coming year as some big disbursements are due for the steel and power sectors.

“We’ve identified steel and power sectors as our thrust areas in West Bengal,” Mr Mehta observed.

The zone that comprised 213 branches — nine opened this year, and another 10 to be added next year — posted a deposit growth of 25.32 per cent at Rs 7,296 crore till February (year to year) and a credit-deposit ratio of 60.39 per cent.

“We’ve adopted five villages in the zone for 100 per cent financial inclusion to be achieved shortly,” Mr Mehta said pointing out that the bank recently achieved 100 per cent financial inclusion in Orissa’s Keonjhar district.

Social assistance

Earlier, Mr Mehta handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Sinchan, a local NGO devoted to providing financial assistance to poor but meritorious students to enable them to carry on with their studies.

“With this money, we plan to cover 100 students under our assistance programme as against 70 at present,” said a spokesman for Sinchan.

More Stories on : Credit Market | Public Sector Banks | West Bengal

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