The IndusInd Bank MD said that the bank would be asked to contribute upto 15 per cent towards the equity of IndusInd Bank. Investment banking, infrastructure financing and venture capital would be the thrust areas of IndusInd Bank after the collaborator bank was finalised.

Maheshwari disclosed that by October the arrangement with this foreign bank would be finalised and the IndusInd Bank and the selected bank would start functioning jointly.

Another major policy decision taken by IndusInd bank is the adoption of three-prongedstrategy to bring down the NPA of the bank which stands at a whopping 7 per cent and is highest among all the new private sector banks.

Maheshwari said that firstly the bank has decided to create an asset management department. A vice-president of the bank heads it and he deals directly with all NPA accounts.

Secondly the bank has approved a compromise policy. The board of the bank has finalised it and one time settlement is offered under this compromise policy. The third strategy is to take recourse to securities.

The MD of IndusInd bank said that a major change in the focus of bank has been brought from "wholesale banking to retail banking". These efforts had started showing results and in few months the number of accounts had gone up from 43,000 to 88,000 and saving account deposits increased from Rs 42 crore to Rs 98 crore. With this the cost of deposits had come down from about 14 per cent to 10.3 per cent which translated into an additional profit of about 80 crore for the bank. He said that 2 percent decline in cost of deposits upto June 1999 was no mean achievement.

The bank was targeting to bring down the NPA to 5 per cent by March 2000. By March 2001, the dream figure of 2.5 per cent would be achieved. He,however, said that main factors that resulted in high NPAs were the rough phase through which the industry had to pass particularly steel industry and IndusInd bank's 7 per cent contribution was towards construction industry. Secondly liberalisation of imports had played havoc with several industries and finally the primary market was down with hardly any issue hitting the market. The loans extended on hope of promoters contribution had turned bad and added to the mounting NPAs.

He agreed that IndusInd Bank had grown very fast during the last three years and with it had come some problems because its advances were highest among all new private sector banks. The bank had shown 62 per cent increase in net profits by touching Rs 25.02 crore for the first quarter of 1999-2000 as against Rs 15.43crore in previous year. The operating profit had also gone up by 80 per cent to Rs 45.10 crore as against Rs 25.02 crore for the previous year. The bank's networth had gone up from Rs 515.99 crore in June 1998 to Rs 545.74 crore in June 99.

About the future plans of IndusInd Bank, the managing director said that Senior Citizens Scheme was beiing formulated and it would be the first such scheme by any bank. Under this scheme the senior citizens would get 1 per cent more interest than others. Similarly free remittances, confessional services would be other highlights of this scheme. The bank plans to install over 100 ATMs at strategic locations through the country during the next three years.