By IANS
Chennai : Kerala-based private bank, The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd, is targeting a business growth of 25 percent for this fiscal.
The bank will achieve the target by expanding its branch network and targeted marketing of its credit products, said R. Venkataraman, chairman and CEO of the bank, to the media here Wednesday.
According to him, the bank will increase its branch network by 19, raising it to 366 by Jan 2008.
The new branches will be set up outside Kerala in states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat.
He said the bank has got a licence from the Reserve Bank of India to install 25 offsite automatic teller machines (ATM) and seven mobile ATMs.
Last fiscal the bank did a total business of Rs.77.6 billion, comprising deposits of Rs.47.48 billion and advances of Rs.30.12 billion.
“During the previous quarter, the credit growth was Rs.700 million,” Venkataraman said.
As on Sep 30, the bank’s deposits and advances stood at Rs.51.34 billion and Rs.34.07 billion, respectively.
Speaking about the targeted marketing strategy, he said the bank would focus on one business segment per month and go all out with a custom designed credit product.
For instance, the bank will be targeting medical practitioners next month with a credit product, whereby loans for short durations would be provided against security.
According to Venkataraman, the bank will complete development of its core banking solution by partnering with Chennai-based Lasersoft Infotech Ltd.
The Catholic Syrian Bank has appointed Wipro Infotech as the systems integrator, and BSNL and VSNL for telecom connectivity and data centre, respectively. The hardware will be sourced from Cisco.
“The outlay for the entire core banking project is around Rs.400 million,” said Venkataraman.
The bank is also considering opening a representative office in the Middle East.