Corporation Bank is striving to wean farmers away from money lenders by extending credit at affordable rates. SR Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, told BusinessLine that crop loans of up to ₹1 lakh are being extended to farmers, not necessarily for the crop but to pay off dues to money lenders.

“Farmer suicides have been on the rise and we perceived that the best way to help the community is to free them from the clutches of money lenders,” he said, adding that the bank had started this programme a month ago.

“It is across the country and not specific to any State or geography,” he said, in reply to a query.

Though the quantum of support extended till date was not available, Bansal said that this would help achieve and surpass the priority sector lending target (particularly agriculture credit) this fiscal. The CMD was in Tirupur for an “Exporters and Importers Meet” organised by the bank.

Admitting that it was his first visit to the knitwear hub after taking over the reigns of the bank, he said, “This is a mini-Japan and there are loads of opportunity.”

To tap the potential, the bank plans to open two more branches and set up five more ATMs in and around the knitwear cluster to take the network to five branches and 10 ATMs before December.

“The branch at Avinashi will become operational within the next 45 days. We will also have two e-Lobbys here. The first of these will come up within the next 21 days,” Bansal said.

“The total business volume (for Corporation Bank) from this hub is ₹1,300 crore. We are targeting a business volume of ₹2,500 crore by end-March and forex turnover of ₹3,000 crore this fiscal, up from ₹2,300 crore now,” he said.

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