Suburban locations in India are witnessing a real estate and retail boom with a lot of residential and commercial complexes being built out there. Now, banks are also aggressively targeting such centres for business by opening new branches in such areas. Says Maninder Juneja, head, retail liabilities, ICICI Bank, “Customer behaviour and transaction studies have shown us that customers have a tendency to approach the nearest bank branch for all their transaction needs. Moreover, customer footfall in a suburb branch is at par with a comparative branch in a metro.” More than 150 ICICI Bank branches are located in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. “The suburbs of these four metros are supported by around 20% of these branch numbers. Suburban locations are a key focus area in our branch expansion plan for this year too,” says Juneja.
Similarly, of the 286 branches of Karur Vysya Bank, 23 branches are located in suburban locations.
“Considering the potential of the upcoming IT corridor in Chennai and the industrial sector in other suburbs in Chennai, we have opened several branches in such locations and this is fetching us good business,” says PT Kuppuswamy, chairman, Karur Vysya Bank. Nearly 447 (of the total 1836 branches) of the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) are located in suburban areas. “Over time, many suburbs have become urban centres and have acquired economic identity of their own,” says SA Bhat, chairman and managing director, Indian Overseas Bank.