New licences don't scare Federal Bank

"It may be three years away from when new bank licences get operationalised and build up some scale, but we are not just going to stay quiet and watch," says Mr Shyam Srinivasan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Bank.

"We have our own aspiration plans to scale-up, he told Business Line here. Three years from now, Federal Bank will have 1,500 branches. It will be a formidable size," he added.

But he would not sit and worry whether new banks would hurt because they have a lot of catching-up to do. But he anticipates what he described as 'a huge raid' on the bank's employees.

"By that time, our young team would be four years into the job, trained and invested by us. The challenge of a hostile raid on the human resources is bound to happen in any competitive environment. "Yes, that is a huge challenge, but I will not brood over it and get alarmed yet," Mr Srinivasan said.