The Chandigarh region of the Bank of Maharashtra would open eight new branches in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in the current fiscal to increase its focus on north India.
Anil Thakur, regional manager, Chandigarh region told FE during an exclusive interview here on Friday that the eight new branches slated to be opened this fiscal include two branches in Himachal Pradesh at Una and Mandi, two in Gurgaon in Haryana, one each at Chandigarh, Ludhiana, jalandhar and Zirakpur in Punjab. He said that Thakur told that at present the bank had 18 branches in Punjab, 17 in Haryana, 3 in Chandigarh, two in Jammu and Kashmir and 1in Himachal Pradesh.
He said that all these 41 branches under Chandigarh region were CBS branches offering connectivity of all branches for the convenience of customers. And also the region, has three specialised foreign exchange located at Panipat in Haryana and Amritsar and Ludhiana in Punjab.
He informed that during year 2007-08, the Bank of Maharashtra had a business of about Rs 2000 crores from Chandigarh region with Rs 1080 advances and Rs 920 deposits. He said the bank was projecting a growth of about 35% this fiscal which would take total business to Rs 2700 crores having advances of Rs 1,400 crores and deposits of Rs 1,300 crores.
For record when Thakur took over as AGM heading the Chandigarh Region two years back, the total business was close to Rs 1000 crores and in two years, the bank has seen almost 100% growth in total business. He said that USP of the region has been an equal focus on retail and wholesale business. While Bank of Maharashtra had laid focus on education and housing advances, it has also got government accounts like Punjab State Electricity Board and Haryana Agriculture and Marketing Federation.
Thakur informed that overall Bank of Maharashtra has at present 1,380 branches and the total business of the Bank stood at Rs 76,000 by the end of March 31, 2008. He said that the Bank had reported a 20.8% increase in net profit during last fiscal at Rs 328.39 crore as compared to net profit of Rs 271.84 crore in the previous year. He said that the total income of the bank for the year ended March 31, 2008 stood at Rs 3,821 crore, an increase of 27.91% over the Rs 2,987 crore recorded in the previous year.
