Sunday, Dec 12, 2004
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004 |
| Business | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Business
By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 11. Canara Bank's immediate target is to become a truly global bank, its Chairman and Managing Director, V. P. Shetty, has said. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu today, Mr. Shetty said that the bank proposed to spread its presence to other parts of the world, including the Gulf region soon. The representative office of the bank in Moscow has been converted into a full-fledged joint operating centre with the State Bank of India. The bank has also entered into an understanding with the Sberbank (Russia's leading State-owned bank) for cooperation in all areas of banking operations. Mr. Shetty said that his bank was confident of getting licence for opening a full-fledged branch in Hong Kong shortly. Permission to start a representative office in China was also expected in two months' time. And the London office of the bank is doing well, he said. Asked about the reported moves by leading Indian banks to merge, he said that there had so far been only media reports and no official pronouncements on this subject. He said that consolidation was a must in the banking sector in the country. The only question is how and when it should be done. With globalisation, the Indian banks too have to integrate with the global banking system to retain their competitiveness. They have to take both their assets and capital to a minimum size to attract international accounts. Asked how prepared Canara Bank was to meet the Basle-II norms, Mr. Shetty said that the bank was already having a strong set-up to assess, inspect and audit credit risk (which was necessary to conform to the Basle-I norms). "The bank also has an established and time-tested credit rating mechanism,'' he said. As for introducing a mechanism for monitoring market risk (a condition to be fulfilled when Basle-II norms fall in place), the bank has already taken steps to have tie-ups with leading computer software firms. In the case of operating risk, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to spell out what the approach should be. "We are awaiting the RBI guidelines in this regard," he said. Mr. Shetty said that the bank had no immediate plans to hit the market for raising additional capital. "Our capital adequacy ratio was 13.9 as on September 30. We will assess the situation when the balance sheet for 2004-05 is ready and decide whether to go to the market and, if so, when," he said. Mr. Shetty said the bank was initiating steps to bring together the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in each State sponsored by it. In Kerala, the South Malabar Gramin Bank is under Canara Bank's umbrella. It will remain as such, while four RRBs in Karnataka and three RRBs in Uttar Pradesh under the Canara Bank would be merged to form one united RRB in each State. "After finalising the matters in the Board (of these RRBs), we will approach the respective State Governments and the Centre, who too have stakes in these rural banks," he said.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
