Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) is planning to tap overseas markets through the issue of Medium Term Notes (MTN).
Several leading banks, including State Bank of India, have adopted the MTN route, an instrument to ensure constant cash flows and allowing the financial institutions to design their debt issuances in line with the financing needs of their overseas branches. IOB will raise funds to the tune of $250-500 million through the MTN route.
IOB Chairman and Managing Director M. Narendra told reporters here on Friday that the bank was yet to finalise the exact size of the fund, but was gearing up to take the MTN route in the next six months.
The bank was looking at opening five to six branches overseas in the next two to three years and was focussing primarily on Asia and Africa in this regard. It had international presence with branches in Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok and Colombo and was planning to upgrade its representative office in China into a branch. Referring to interest rates, he said interest rates were not likely to come down during the current fiscal owing to the existing inflationary and liquidity concerns. “Interest rates may harden a bit in the next quarter, but this will depend on several factors,” he said.
IOB revised its target of achieving a business level of Rs.2.25-lakh crore by the end of the current fiscal to Rs.2.50-lakh crore as the business had already reached Rs.2.20-lakh crore. It was targeting a business of Rs.5-lakh crore in the next three years.
The bank proposed to increase its branches from 2,017 to 3,000 and would set up an equal number of ATMs. It was planning to recruit over 3,000 people in different cadres.
