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Mangalore-based public sector lender, Corporation Bank is heading for aggressive expansion in Gujarat by adding 100 branches during the next financial year. The PSU bank would focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), retail and agriculture credit in the grass root areas of the State.
“Gujarat is an important market for us. We will add about 40 more branches by the end of this fiscal to take it to 150 total, while in the next year we will add another 100 branches in the state,” S R Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank told Business Line here.
Nationally, Corporation Bank has over 2000 branches, spread across the country, while it intends to add 500 more branches in the next year to its existing branch network.
“We are planning to make our presence in all the regions, where there is scope. We have hired good number of marketing executives and are ensuring best services in the industry for our clients,” added Bansal.
The veteran banker, Bansal expressed optimism about the Indian economy post the general elections. “The fundamentals of the industry have become strong. There is high growth potential. Stable Government and lower inflation in coming months would help the industry grow further,” he said.
The bank has about 19 per cent of its total credit portfolio in the MSME segment, while retail comprises 23 per cent. Agriculture credit holds about 9 per cent of the bank’s total credit portfolio.
“There is about 30 per cent growth in MSME, retail and agriculture credits. Even in the tighter monetary situations, we have been able to achieve this growth and we expect the same to continue in these segments,” said Bansal, who was in town recently.
Giving details about the bank’s non-performing assets (NPAs), Bansal informed that Corporation Bank has gross NPAs at around 3.08 per cent, while the net NPAs are hovering at around 2.15 per cent of the total advances.
The lower NPA numbers are a result of the company’s efforts at containing slippages and its recovery drive. The bank expects its NPAs to come down to around 3 per cent by March 2014.
The total deposits of the bank were reported at around Rs 1.78-lakh crore as on December 31, 2013, while advances stood at Rs 1.23 lakh crore.
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