Bank of Baroda to offer 8-to-8 service

Bank of Baroda (BoB) is set to keep over 100 of its branches open from 8 am to 8 pm by June 30. Already 51 of the bank's branches across the country's top 10 cities are open from 8 am to 8 pm.

Branches in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Jaipur, Baroda have 8-to-8 branches already.

"We have received a very good response from our customers and, therefore, we will keep 51 more branches open for longer hours. We are the first public sector bank to offer such facility," said Anil K Khandelwal, chairman & managing director, at the sidelines of a press conference today to announce its strategic tie-up with Western Union for in-bound money transfer services to India.

With this tie-up in place, any person without being an account holder of BoB, can walk into any of its 900 branches that have tied up Western Union and receive remittances from overseas.

BoB clocked remittances worth $1 billion through its overseas branches last year, which will increase with the new alliance.

BoB has also opened four 24-hour branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. "We are experimenting with the concept, trying to create demand. Through this we are attempting to serve the customer in an emergency," Khandelwal said.

The public sector bank is undergoing a massive image overhaul with a new logo, a brand ambassador and extensive advertisements on outdoor and indoor media.

The bank's branches are being connected through the core banking solution, 150 branches are to be connected by March 2006.