PNB to form subsidiary in Canada by December
Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country's second largest nationalized bank, expects to form its fully owned subsidiary at Vancouver (Canada) by December this year.
“PNB has the license to start its subsidiary at Vancouver (Canada) and we expect this to happen by December 2010. Besides, we are also taking a controlling stake in Dana Bank of Kazakhstan and hope the takeover to be achieved in a few months. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is doing the due diligence on this bank whose size is estimated at $0.5 billion (about Rs 2350 crore)”, Mohan V Tanksale, executive director of PNB told media persons here.
PNB has already formed a subsidiary in London which operates five branches with a combined business of $2 billion (Rs 9400 crore).
PNB currently has an international presence in nine countries with branches at Hong Kong, Kabul and Dubai and representative offices at Almaty, Dubai, Shanghai and Norway.
The public sector bank is also making efforts to upgrade its representative office in Norway into a full-fledged branch and is in the process of setting up a representative office in Sydney.
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The bank is eyeing for a 20 per cent growth in deposits and 22 per cent growth in advances in the current financial year.
“We did a total business of Rs 4.52 lakh crore in 2009-10 which included Rs 2.55 lakh crore of deposits and Rs 1.97 lakh crore of advances. In this fiscal, we are targeting a growth of 20 per cent in deposits and 22 per cent in advances”, said Tanksale.
In the Orissa circle, PNB achieved a total business of around Rs 4000 crore which included deposits of Rs 2600 crore and advances worth Rs 1400 crore. The bank is aiming at a business target of around Rs 5000 crore for the current fiscal. It also intends to ramp up its branch network in the state from 71 at present to about 100 in the next 6-9 months.
Meanwhile, PNB plans to foray into the micro-insurance business, given the tremendous potential of the segment.
“We intend to roll out micro-insurance products within the next six months through partnership with an insurance firm. PNB is currently in the process of appointing a consultant to guide us on the modalities of this proposed business venture”, he added.
Commenting on the bank's Financial Inclusion initiatives, Tanksale stated, “PNB has been allocated 4700 villages across the country with a population of over 2000, including 31 villages in Orissa. The bank has opened around 60 lakh no-frills accounts and implemented 39 ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) based projects in 16 states.”