Vijaya bank, a public sector entity with a total business of Rs 90,000 crore is set to achieve the target of bringing all its branches under core banking solution (CBS).

Having a network of 1,067 branches out of which 987 are under CBS, the bank will complete the process of adding another 33 branches reaching the 1,100-mark before the end of this March.

S C Kalia, executive director of Vijaya Bank told FE that the bank would be opening six branches in northern region. Chandigarh region comprises of 49 branches spread over Haryana, Punjab Jammu and Kashmir, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Apart from this, the bank, which is catering to a customer-base of eight million will also introduce mobile banking before the end of this fiscal.

The bank has a lending exposure of Rs 4,000 crore to small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and is intends to restructure about more than 8, 900 SME loan accounts by the end of the financial year. Kalia said, however, the final data is yet to be collated, as the last date for receiving application from SME sector is March 31.

The Reserve Bank of India had issued a directive asking banks to restructure loans of SMEs owing to the difficulties they were facing in the wake of economic slowdown.

Restructuring of loans includes an extension of the repayment period and reduction in the equated monthly installments.

Replying to a query, the executive director averred that there was a slowdown in demand for housing loan as people are postponing their plans, speculating the property prices to come down in near future.

In order to mitigate the difficulties faced by housing loan borrowers due to current global conditions, Kalia said that Bank has introduced V Niwas Loan Scheme for new housing loan borrowers on softer terms as per the guidelines announced by the government of India and Reserve Bank of India.

Vijaya Bank has registered a growth of 60% in net interest income and posted a net profit of Rs 156.99 crore for the third quarter of 2008-09, a growth of 23.73% Q-o-Q. Besides, deposits are up by 21.38% to Rs 52,837 crore.