The Hindu : DBL to give thrust to microcredit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 28, 2002

Business

Business

DBL to give thrust to microcredit

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI NOV. 27. The Thrissur-based Dhanalakshmi Bank, which is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee, is to give more thrust to micro credit and retail banking including housing finance, car loans and telebanking.

According to the executive director, K. A. Menon, the bank also intends to spread its wings to corporate lending in a major way. The bank which has eight ATMs plans to have 100 more ATMs in the next couple of years and by next year 80 per cent of the bank's business would be through electronic connectivity. Efforts are on to instal a centralised banking software solution and by next year a few pilot branches would be going on-line.

The ED said the 11 per cent NPA level would be brought down to 9 per cent in a year and some of the branches had been exclusively earmarked for asset recovery. The capital adequacy ratio had also improved and the bank's operating profit for the last six months stood at Rs. 27 crores. The net profit during the first six months of the current financial year was Rs. 6.86 crores against Rs. 5.20 crores in the same period last year.

The Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, will inaugurate the Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Thrissur on December 1.

The Union Minister, O. Rajagopal, and State Finance Minister, K. Sankaranarayanan, would also participate in the celebrations.

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