Oriental Bank of Commerce to increase retail advances by 50% this fiscal

KOLKATA: Oriental Bank of Commerce plans to increase retail advances by 50% this fiscal with special emphasis on housing loan sector. The bank chairman and managing director Nagesh Pydah said the bank has selected 600 out its 1,646 branches for intense retail loan delivery.

"We want organic growth in retail advances by using our excellent modern technology platform. We are targeting at the genY," Mr Pydah said.

The Delhi-based bank plans to disburse Rs 4,000 crore worth of retail loans during 2011-12 while at present it has an outstanding portfolio of Rs 8,000 crore, which is 12% of the bank's total loan book.

"We have decided that we will not give housing loans if the builders are outside of our approved list. We have had problems in the past in case of smaller builders," the CMD said, adding that the bank has decided to finance only first time home owners.

The bank's housing loan portfolio stands at Rs 6,000 crore and it wants to take it to Rs 9,000 crore by March 2012.

Mr Pydah said the bank can grow at 20% CAGR in the next two years without raising fresh capital as its capital adequacy ratio stands at a healthy 14.2%. It has a headroom of Rs 6,800 crore for raising tier 2 capital.

Source: EconomicTimes