The Hindu : Business : Central Bank expects record profit this fiscal

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Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
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Central Bank expects record profit this fiscal

Staff Reporter

The bank plans to open 191 new branches

OTTApPALAM (PALAKKAD): Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Central Bank of India (CBI) S. Sridhar has said that the bank is expected to double its profit this fiscal, compared to Rs.571 crore last year.

He told The Hindu here on Monday that the profit in the first half of the financial year crossed Rs.581 crore, which is a record.

Mr. Sridhar said in the next fiscal, the bank would have a business target of Rs. 2,10,000 crore. It was Rs. 2,00,000 crore in the current financial year.

Mr. Sridhar said the bank would give 18 per cent of its total loan allocation to the agriculture sector to help the primary sector come out of the crisis.

He said that the Central Bank of India always gave priority to the agriculture sector and most of its branches were in rural areas catering to the primary sector and the rural population.

Mr. Sridhar said the bank planned to actively pursue the target of achieving 100 per cent financial inclusion next fiscal. Already 17,000 villages in the country had achieved cent per cent financial inclusion.

He said the bank would open 191 new branches in the next financial year and three of them would be in Kerala, one of which would be in Palakkad.

The bank would appoint employees and officers through campus recruitment. Next year, it planned to recruit 2,000 personnel, the CMD said.

“It has already gone for technology upgrading. We are concentrating on internet banking and mobile banking,” he said.

The bank has appointed business correspondents through NGOs and credible voluntary organisations in rural areas where it has no branches. He said in the last 18 months, the bank had opened 28 lakh new accounts for those covered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

He said the bank was investing in a big way in sea ports, highways, power projects, water supply schemes implemented under the Public Private Participation (PPP) model.

The CMD was here to launch the social welfare schemes of the Ottappalam Welfare Trust.

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