Pune, Dec 15: Bank of Baroda (BoB) will be setting up an integrated treasury and risk management branch in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 20 crore. Few banks have put in place advanced risk management systems, whereas BoB will be the first public sector bank to have an integrated branch, Dr AK Khandelwal, executive director of the bank said.Mr Khandelwal said that the bank's foray into life insurance business will be finalised in two months' time. DSP Meryll Lynch has been identifying a suitable joint venture partner and things were at an advanced stage. "For the time being, we will be getting into life insurance, but we will be marketing general or non-life insurance products of other insurance companies."
Mr Khandelwal was in Pune to launch the OmniBOB range of banking products in Pune, which includes smartcard-based AnyBranch banking, centralised telebanking and PC banking services. The OmniBOB will be launched in Delhi and Mumbai soon. It is available in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
BoB will be investing Rs 300 crore in technology in the next three years to network 1000 branches in metros and urban areas. The bank has already invested Rs 200 crore in computerisation and connectivity. Talking to media persons, Mr Khandelwal said around 6,000 employees were expected to go in for the VRS, which would cost the bank around Rs 500 crore and this the bank would try and absorb in the first year itself. The VRS will be on offer from January 14 to February 14. BoB was working on beefing up its international operations to broadbase global business beyond the ethnic Indian population.
As part of this strategy, BoB has set up a global syndication centre in London. We want to go beyond trade finance and participate wholesale banking in the UK and the US, he said. BoB is opening up a new subsidiary in Botswana to add to the list of subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Uganda, Guyana and Kenya.
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