Corp Bank to open 200 branches, hire 1,200

State-run lender Corporation Bank said it would recruit 1,200 people this fiscal with an aim to achieve its target of adding 200 branches to its network.

"This year, we will hire 1,200 people as we are planning to open 200 branches," the bank's Chairman and Managing Director Ramnath Pradeep said on the sidelines of a conference last evening.

"The process [of opening branches] is on. It [the expansion] will be across India, particularly in the northern states," he said, adding that the bank will comply with the Reserve Bank's directive of opening 25% of the new branches in Tier V and VI settlements.

On its overseas expansion, he said the bank has not been able to succeed much in the area till now. It has submitted a plan to the RBI, but the sector regulator is going slow on it as the bank is small in size, he added.

The bank is also planning to opening 4-5 branches in the African continent.

The Mangalore-based bank is targeting to increase its net interest margin to 3% in FY12, from the 2.5% it achieved for the year ended March 31, 2011.

Pradeep said in order to achieve the target, the bank will concentrate on garnering more of the cheaper Current and Savings Account (CASA) deposits.

He said the CASA component stood at 26% of the total deposit pie as on March 31, 2011, and the bank is aiming to take it up to 30% by the end of FY12.

Source: Business Standard