The Chief General Manager of State Bank of Travancore (SBT), Mr S. Balachandran, said there was some improvement in the liquidity position and he does not foresee any increase in the rates in the near term.

SBT incidentally had revised its base rate to 8.5 per cent recently. ‘We had in fact hiked our deposit rate twice in the third quarter and this was done before the base rate hike,' he told Business Line over phone from Coonoor.

Mr Balachandran was on tour of Coimbatore and Nilgiris district, meeting customers to strengthen relationship.

Asked what the customers sought from the bank, he merely said ‘they are happy with loans we offer in foreign currency. The rates are linked to Libor'.

Credit offtake

On credit offtake, he said ‘the momentum is picking up'.

Will the bank surpass its business target? ‘We achieved 16 per cent growth in deposits and 24 per cent growth in advances compared to the corresponding period of the earlier year. While it has so far been in line with our business target, we may have to make some topline changes as the credit off take during the first two quarters of the current fiscal was not great.'

Branch expansion

On branch expansion, he said that another 15 branches would be added to its branch network of 783 before the close of this fiscal. ‘We are planning to open 100 more branches next year, albeit subject to the RBI approval.'

On hiring, he said ‘we will be hiring 1,500 clerical staff. Exams are over. The next stage in the recruitment process would start soon.'

Asked if youngsters were keen to join the banking industry, Mr Balachandran said ‘they do, but we also foresee some threat. When they gain domain expertise, they prefer to quit and join the IT industry or some foreign bank. There is attrition,' he said, adding ‘rate though is not high.'

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