Ratnakar Bank opens branch in Chennai

Maharastra-headquartered private sector Ratnakar Bank Ltd opened its branch in the city as part of its expansion plan.

The bank has a strong presence in Karnataka, Goa and was growing in other regions like Gujarat, NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Haryna, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajsthan and Union territory of Daman and Diu, bank’s CEO and Managing Director Vishwavir Ahuja said.

He said the bank plans to achieve a pan India footprint.

The bank’s business volume was around Rs 15,000 crore as on March 31, 2013, he added.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Syndicate Bank hopes to reduce bad loans by 20% this year

Syndicate Bank has drawn up a strategy to bring down non-performing assets. “We are implementing stressed tiny assets recovery programmes, besides offering one-time settlements by conducting ‘Synd Adalats’ every quarter to reduce NPAs by 20 per cent this year,” the bank’s Executive Director M. Anjaneya Prasad told newspersons here on Monday.

The Bangalore-based bank’s gross and net NPA levels fell in the financial year ended March 31, 2013, compared to the previous year.

They came down from 2.35 per cent to 1.99 per cent and 0.96 per cent to 0.76 per cent respectively.

The regional offices were given specific targets on recovery which were being closely monitored, he added.

GROWTH

In the current financial year, Syndicate Bank is targeting 25 per cent growth in total business. In the last financial year, it logged 18 per cent growth in business at Rs 3.34-lakh crore and a net interest margin of 3.19 per cent.

Increased focus on retail, micro, small and medium enterprises and mid-corporates will be the key drivers to achieve the projected growth. The NIM for the full year could be above 3 per cent, he added.

The process of restructuring stressed assets is also going on. As on March, 2013, assets worth Rs 9,125 crore were restructured. “Assets worth t Rs 200-300 crore may be restructured in the next quarter,” the official said.

naga.gunturi@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Vijaya Bank cuts housing loan rates

Vijaya Bank has reduced rate of interest on housing loans.

The bank, in a release, said to increase retail lending and give thrust to home loan portfolio, bank has launched a ‘Summer Bonanza Special Campaign’ running up to June 2013.

The rate of interest on home loans has been reduced up to the extent of 75 basis points in certain slabs.

The Processing and documentation charges have been fully waived. Maximum repayment period is increased from 25 years to 30 years.

For loan amount less than Rs 75 lakh, rate of interest linked to base rate (floating) is 10.25 per cent per annum and EMI per lakh is Rs 896.

For loans Rs 75 lakh and above, rate of interest linked to base rate (floating) is 10.50 per cent per annum and EMI per lakh is Rs 915.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Allahabad Bank to trim NPAs

Public sector lender Allahabad Bank aims to bring down its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) level to around 3.2 per cent from the last fiscal’s level of 3.92 per cent on the back of sustained effort on recovery, a top bank official has said.

“As far as asset quality is concerned, we aim to bring down our gross NPAs to around 3.2 per cent by end of this fiscal from 3.92 per cent in FY13,” chairman and managing director Shubhalakshmi Panse told PTI over the weekend.

She also said the bank is monitoring bad accounts on a daily basis along with focus on recovery. “We aim to recover Rs 2,800-3,000 crore in the current fiscal from Rs 2,300 crore done last fiscal,” Panse said.

The bank chief also said the possibility of upgrade of accounts would be more with economic growth.

Last week, Allahabad Bank had reported a 68.5 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 126.15 crore in the fourth quarter of last fiscal on account of rise in bad loans.

Referring to the cost of funds for the bank, Panse said with re-pricing of bulk deposits, it had already come down in Q4 and is likely to go down further.

She also said the growth of low cost deposit (Casa) is good for the bank and it hopes to sustain it in the current financial year.

The bank had a Casa (current account, savings account) ratio of around 31 per cent by end of the past fiscal. Panse, however, said it has little room for reduction in lending rates as it had already done so in February and its current lending rates are competitive.

On the issue of growth in loan book, she said while corporate loan book will see good growth, the bank wants to increase its retail assets.

“We aim to increase our retail loan book to 15 per cent from present 13.5 per cent,” Panse said.

Source: thehindubusinessline

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Corp Bank plans rural expos to boost agri credit

To boost its agriculture credit portfolio, Corporation Bank will conduct rural expos across the country during May.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Ajai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said that the bank wants to create village-level awareness on various products and services through such expos.

Each zone of the bank will be conducting a minimum of 10 rural expos. The bank has 31 zones. It is proposed to conduct more than 300 such rural expos across the country, he said.

With rural expos, the bank expects to generate good amount of business.

Such an expo will give more visibility in Ajai Kumar said that the bank witnessed a growth of Rs 2,326 crore in agriculture credit during 2012-13.

The agriculture credit portfolio of the bank stood at Rs 9,466 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 7,140 crore in 2011-12.

He hoped that the bank will be able to double than what it had done in agriculture credit disbursement in 2012-13 with such initiatives.

The bank is also planning to increase its presence in rural areas during the current fiscal. Ajai Kumar said that the bank is planning to open a total of around 300 branches during 2013-14.

One-third of them, or around 100 branches, will be opened in rural areas during the current financial year, he said.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in

Source: thehindubusinessline

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