Bangalore-based public sector lender Vijaya Bank has said it is hopeful of raising its credit growth to 18-20 per cent in the current financial year.

“We have posted 16 per cent growth in credit offtake in the first quarter. But as third and fourth quarter witness more credit expansion, we are hopeful of clocking 18-20 per cent growth for the whole fiscal,” the bank’s Executive Director Shubhalakshmi Panse told PTI.

However, she said, concerns regarding patchy monsoon and the overall gloomy economic environment may have adverse impact on credit pick-up.

The public sector lender posted a 16 per cent rise in credit demand and 14 per cent increase in deposits in April-June.

“As far as deposit growth is concerned, we hope to end this fiscal with 16 per cent growth,” she said.

While the lender’s advances increased to Rs 59,306 crore in the June quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 51,130 crore reported in the year-ago period, its deposits increased to Rs 86,464 crore from Rs 75,877 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

Panse also said the bank is actively campaigning to increase its cheap cost deposit base to reduce the cost of funds.

“We are running a campaign `Vision 100’ for garnering Casa (current account, savings account) deposits, which will reduce our cost of funds,” she said, adding this would also help it reduce the dependence on bulk deposits.

The bank has a wait and watch policy about reducing lending rates on some key retail segments.

“We are aware that SBI has reduced its interest rates on auto and home loans. We are watching the overall market environment,” she said, adding the bank doesn’t have any immediate plans to reduce rates.

Vijaya Bank posted a 54 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 111.36 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal.