Gelli was in Pune on Wednesday to open Global's second branch in the city. Gelli said that the global securities banking would now move to the retail end. This was launched in Mumbai, and would be available across the country by June to those trading in dematerialised securities. The auto finance, house-improvement finance, and high-end consumer finance will start by April. Global is looking at vehicle loans up to Rs 3 lakh. In the consumer-finance section, it plans to offer bigger package deals.

Gelli said that thebank would maintain its growth and give the highest return on investments among the private banks despite slow credit offtake in the current year. The bank is taking a cautious approach, and is not exposing itself to all sectors, Gelli said. He indicated that there was a positive trend in the credit offtake in December '98 and January '99. Global's deposit base as on September 1998 was Rs 3,800 crore, and lending, Rs 1,800 crore. The bank will focus on corporate clients with a turnover of Rs 25-250 crore.

Global will have a network of 65 branches by March 1999, the highest among the new private-sector banks. By 2000, it plans to have 75 branches. It will complete networking of all the existing branches by April 1999 with 25 new V-Sat installations.