Syndicate Bank looking to boost fee-based income

Syndicate Bank is working towards boosting its fee-based income. It has created a separate wing and recruited professionals for this.

The target is to increase the revenues from this business segment to at least 20 per cent over last year, the bank’s Executive Director M. Anjaneya Prasad said.

The bank has taken on board 20 chartered accountants and tied up with nine mutual funds in the last few months, including HDFC, Reliance and IDBI, to drive up business from the capital market, mutual funds and insurance, he told Business Line at a recent interaction here.

Corporate focus

Another focus area for the bank is the mid-size corporate segment. It will be creating mid-corporate branches that will deal with Rs 5-75 crore loans. Initially, some of the existing branches would be converted and later exclusive ones created, the Executive Director said.

On non-performing assets, Prasad said they were a cause for worry, though recoveries have gone up. In the last few months, the bank recovered Rs 500 crore.

The bank is not inclined to support corporate debt restructuring deals. However, where it is a minority there is little option but to follow the lenders. The bank has at least 6-7 big accounts, where the exposure is around Rs 2,000 crore, he added.

somasekhar.m@thehindu.co.in