Syndicate Bank Executive Director T.K. Srivastava on Monday said that the Bank plans to open 50 mid-corporate branches with specialised officers exclusively to cater to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by this financial year-end. He said that the Bank would focus on lending to this sector as they are the backbone of the economy.
Speaking after inaugurating the 17th mid-corporate branch at Hampanakatta here, Mr. Srivastava said the bank has lost focus on big customers — when advances go beyond Rs. 50 crore, the staff is not tuned to that. Banks’ own customers would go to other banks in such situations, he said. The mid-corporate branches could lend up to Rs. 100 crore and beyond under direct monitoring of the field general manager as well as the executive director, he said.
The mid-corporate branches, headed by a chief manager, would have officers specialised in credit disbursement to facilitate speedy lending. Such branches would act as one-point solution to small corporate, Mr. Srivastava said. While MSMEs create employment in their respective region, funding large industries has its own hidden risks, which banks are yet to understand, he said.
Syndicate Bank is growing in MSME lending to 30-35 per cent, and this year too it has targeted 35 per cent growth. Each specialised branch is expected to lend about Rs. 250 crore a year, Mr. Srivastava said.
Besides focussing the MSME sector, Syndicate Bank is one of the few banks that have been achieving targets set by the government in priority sector lending-agriculture, scheduled castes/tribes etc. The Bank has opened over 8 lakh accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and it is the highest in respect of branch-to-account ratio (for 3,300 branches), he said. The Bank also plans to open 200 more branches in this fiscal.
Syndicate Bank, Mr. Srivastava said, has been a premium bank, not in terms of size, but in terms of customer service. It is the only bank that has branches in all states and Union territories of the country, including 10 each in Lakshwadeep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Field General Manager K.T. Rai, Deputy General Manager I.T. Sethuraman and others were present.
