Public sector Canara Bank is eyeing an increase in its business portfolio in Uttar Pradesh to Rs 25,000 crore in the current financial year.
Currently, UP contributes Rs 20,867 crore or 4.2 per cent to the bank’s total business, including deposits and advances of Rs 13,977 crore and Rs 6,890 crore respectively.
Keeping pace with the expansion plans, Canara Bank on Friday opened 16 ATMs and 13 new branches, of which 9 branches are in rural areas. Currently, 251 branches, of which almost half are in rural areas, are functioning in UP.
“We have lent almost Rs 4,000 crore to various priority sectors in UP, including Rs 1,550 crore to agriculture,” the bank’s executive director Archana S Bhargava informed.
Under the financial inclusion plan, Canara Bank has 207 villages in UP to provide banking services. Till June, the bank had opened 3.22 lakh no-frills accounts in the state.
Bhargava later told Business Standard, the Indian banking system is under stress due to the successive rate hikes.
“The hardest hit by the interest rate hikes is the retail and SME (small and medium enterprises) segments.”
“We are trying to help our customers in some cases by rescheduling repayments, wherever possible,” she added.
Commenting on upheavals in the global financial system due to recent developments in the US and Europe, the ED maintained that India could not remain untouched due to the linkages of the world financial markets.
“It would be tough to predict the resultant impact on the Indian banking system, but any more rate hikes at this point could be detrimental to growth, but a trade-off has to be achieved in the face of high inflationary pressure,” she said.
RBI has done a commendable job in managing the situation, she added.
