Vijaya Bank to open 42 new branches

Vijaya Bank plans to open 42 new branches, in addition to the current 1008 branches, before the end of this financial year.

Addressing a function to inaugurate the 1008th branch of the bank at Rangiyam in Pudukottai district, Prakash P Mallya, chairman and managing director pointed out that fifteen of the new branches would be located in Tamil Nadu.

The bank was seeking approval from the Reserve Bank of India to open branches in foreign countries such as China, Malaysia, Dubai and Hong Kong.

The bank's aggregate business touched Rs 71,000 crore at the end of December last year as against Rs 68,980 crore in September. Mallya was optimistic that the bank would garner one lakh crore business by 2008-09.

Given the over-whelming response to its 'V-GenUth' scheme launched recently, the bank was thinking of issuing ATM cards to children with the operational rights bestowed on parents/guardians. The 'V-GenUth' scheme is meant for infants right from day one and has attracted 1000 infant-accounts so far.

The bank is also providing sops such as educational loans at a concessional rate of 0.5 per cent to the prevailing rate, waiver of collection charges for cheque and demand drafts gifted to children up to a limit of Rs 25,000/- per annum.

The ATM card would be regularized and made usable by the individual child when he or she touches the age of 18 years. Presiding over the function, the union minister for finance, P Chidambaram reiterated the importance of banks in implementing welfare schemes across the country.

More than 12 lakh students in the country had availed education loans amounting to Rs 16,000 crore, the minister pointed out. The number of beneficiaries was growing as there were no limits on availability of finance.

He announced that the scheme for rehabilitation of physically challenged, by creating one lakh job opportunities in the private sector at an outlay of Rs 1800 crore, would be launched soon.

The Gramin Rozgar Yojana (National Rural Employment Guarantee Program) at the district level would be launched in April. This scheme envisages daily wages between Rs 80 and Rs 100.