CHENNAI: City Union Bank (CUB) is planning to open 24 additional branches in the current financial year, taking the total to 170 branches with a total business target of Rs. 10,000 crore, according to S. Balasubramanian, Chairman and CEO of the bank.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Balasubramanian said that out of the additional branches five would be located in Tamil Nadu and the remaining in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and in important cities in the Northern India. The bank had got the licence from the Reserve Bank of India to open eight branches and was hopeful of getting the RBI clearance for the remaining branches.

The bank has already come under the National Financial Switch under which the bank's ATM cards can be used in more than 5,000 ATMs of 15 other banks across the country. The Chairman said the bank was in the process of finalising an agreement with VISA for launching debit card services.

City Union Bank has brought 105 branches under core banking solution and the remaining branches would be connected by September this year, Mr. Balasubramanian said.

The bank has appointed Integrated Enterprises (India) Limited, a leading financial service provider, as a business facilitator.

The association would benefit the bank to garner more deposits from the public. The bank was in the process of setting up `Integrated Advisory Kiosks' at select branches with the help of Integrated Enterprises, through which mutual fund and other financial products would be sold to customers of the bank, according to Mr. N. Kamakodi, General Manager of the bank. The bank would also offer a unique facility for easy filing of income tax returns.

The process would include preparing the income-tax return on the spot on the basis of information provided by clients and electronically transmitting the same to the Income Tax Department and also filing the paper return with the local income tax office concerned. In the year ended March 31, 2006, the bank has reported a total income of Rs. 184.14 crore and the net profit was Rs. 56.37 crore.

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