The Hindu Business Line : Federal Bank sets growth target at 25%

Coimbatore, June 22 While admitting that it could be a tough year for bankers, with inflationary trends on the one hand and rising rates on the other, the Federal Bank Chairman and CEO, Mr M. Venugopalan, said, “We want to do better than the industry average. Some banks are looking to grow at 18 per cent, there are others who are targeting a 40 per cent growth. We intend to grow by 25 per cent at least. The first quarter has been good,” he told Business Line.

New branches

The bank has widened its network in the last 18 months by adding 100 new branches. “The new branches tend to perform better than the rest during the initial five to six years. We plan to add another 50 to our existing network this year and this would be subject to the Reserve Bank of India’s approval, which we are yet to seek.”

The bank has commenced the recruiting exercise to keep pace with its expansion plans. “Mass recruitment is on. We intend to place 1,000 people this year — 500 each in the staff and officer category. We have already picked 400 candidates off campus and another 1,200 have cleared the written test.”

Finding employees

“Finding quality candidates is a real problem as every industry is on a recruitment spree,” Mr Venugopalan said, adding that he was able to get the right people for the bank.

He expects the entry of this young generation of people and network expansion to steer the bank to a higher pedestal in coming years.

On the strategy for improving performance, Mr Venugopalan said, “We will focus on savings and current account, smaller deposits and retail lending to SMEs and home loans.”

The bank plans to strengthen its 100 per cent subsidiary, Fed Financial Services, for marketing its products such as home and car loans aggressively. “This financial services arm has been very active in recent months. They have got us business of over Rs 200 crore in the last 4 months. Fed Financial is now operating in around nine centres and targeting a business volume of Rs 1,500 crore this fiscal.”

Mr Venugopalan said the bank would, within the next fortnight, introduce ‘productivity-linked incentive’ scheme. “This is to reward those who are doing a good job. We have almost finalised the structure and it has been done in-house,” he said.

More Stories on : Private Banks | Outlook

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tech ADRs bounce back on falling Re, STPI relief

Federal Bank sets growth target at 25%

Bond yields rise as inflation soars; traders await policy cues

Visakha Co-op Bank to take over another bank

Mirae Asset in tie up with Corporation Bank for distribution

‘Penetration of financial services very low’