Syndicate Bank is planning to mobilise more current account deposits as it was missing out on the CASA (current and savings account) front, according to Sudhir Kumar Jain, Chairman and Managing Director.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Jain said this would be done by approaching commercial organisations, malls and departmental stores.
He said the growth was stagnant on the current account. Private sector banks were scoring over the public sector banks on this segment, he added.
He said the bank would also focus on SMEs, small scale industries and mid corporates by setting up specialised mid corporate branches. It had already identfied around 20 centres to locate these branches. Besides it would set up SME processing centres in various clusters, Mr. Jain said.
On the technology front he said Syndicate Bank was one of the early entrant in core banking. It was planning to implement higher version of software to upgrade its operations by investing Rs. 150 crore to Rs. 200 crore.
On the non-performing assets issue, Mr. Jain said things were slightly better on the recovery front but not at comfortable levels. “There are some accounts [especially on the shipping industry] causing concern. By December all big accounts would get restructured”, he said.
Referring to announcements of reductions in interest rates by some banks, he said public sector banks had started offering housing loans at the base rate. The question was how to deliver it fast. He said Syndicate Bank was also offering housing loans at the base rate (10.25 per cent) and the benefit of reduction was also extended to existing customers.
