In tune with its growing business needs, Canara Bank has opened a new circle office headquartered at Tirupati, to cater to the greater Rayalaseema districts of Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa, Anantapuramu, Kurnool and Prakasam.
As the number of branches across the country grew from 3,700 last year to 4,800, the bank thought of increasing the number of controlling offices from 34 to 44 by March 2015. After opening Indore and Salem circles recently, Tirupati became the third, which will soon be followed by Raipur, Kochi, Varanasi, Gurgaon, Jalandhar, Purnea and Durgapur.
“No, this (decision to carve out a circle) is not based on political outcomes and is just part of our nationwide expansion plan”, bank’s Chairman and Managing Director R.K. Dubey told media persons here on Friday, when queried if the carving out of the new circle is fallout of the State bifurcation. The new circle office, located in a narrow street south of the TTD’s Govindaraja temple, will control operations of the 63 branches in the six districts. While the bank now has Hyderabad, Vizag and Tirupati circles in the undivided state, two more will be opened in phases in Vijayawada and Warangal.
The bank has set an ambitious business target of Rs.8.5 lakh crore by March 2015. “By then, we will have presence in the form of 6,000 branches and 10,000 ATMs across India”, Mr. Dubey said. In a bid to shed the ‘South Indian’ tag and to get a pan-Indian appeal, the bank would soon expand in northern and eastern states. Referring to the bank’s good performance in mobilising business and reducing NPA (Gross NPA is 2.5 p.c.), in spite of the economic slowdown in two years, he attributed the same to his motivated staff.
On a request from Members of Parliament S.P.Y. Reddy (Nandyal) and V.Varaprasada Rao (Tirupati), Mr. Dubey announced to open branches in the ‘un-banked and under-banked’ areas of their respective constituencies. Executive Director V.S. Krishna Kumar, Director G.V. Sambasiva Rao, Deputy General Manager Puli Sayi Babu took part.
