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Public sector lender Canara Bank is planning to expand its overseas presence and will add 14 new branches in overseas locations in the next two years. These locations are The bank has a plan to increase its share of overseas business from about six per cent currently to 15-20 per cent in the next two years. Currently, bank has five branches at London, Leicester, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Manama (Bahrain ) and three representative offices overseas.
Commenting on this RK Dubey, chairman and managing director Canara Bank said, "We are opening a branch in Johannesburg in the next three months, followed by those in New York, Dubai and Frankfurt by September 2014. With this banks wants grow its share in the overseas markets. Currently, our overseas revenue contributes 6 per cent and with this expansion we are expecting to grow this to 15-20 per cent in the next two years. The another ten branches in Sao Paolo, Dar-es-Salaam, Tokyo, Abuja, Jeddah, Qatar, Sydney, Ontario, Wellington and Singapore are awaiting regulatory approvals."
Speaking on bank's domestic expansion plans he said that the bank is adding eight new circles (34 at present) in Jalandhar, Gurgaon, Indore, Varanasi, Raipur, Kochi, Tirupati, and Salem by April 2014, and plans to increase the branch-network from the current 4,500 to 5,500-6,000 in the next two years.
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branches this year. As a expansion plan, Canara Bank has recruited 8000 people last year and adding 8000 more next year taking the total to 42000. The bank has recently launched e-lounge facility in Pune which includes banking facilities like ATM, cash and cheque deposite, passbook printing kiosk, internet banking and online trading facilities.
Currently the bank has 56 e-lounges and will add three more in Pune with new e lounges at Nashik, Kolhapur and Aurangabad. In West Bengal, the Panchayats have allotted 35 centres for branches at a rent of Re 1, while the Orissa Government is giving them 500 sq ft of space free of rent for 100 branches. According to Dubey, the gross NPA has come down to 2.6 from previous 2.9 per cent.
Canara Bank is adding eight new circles (34 at present) in Jalandhar, Gurgaon, Indore, Varanasi, Raipur, Kochi, Tirupati, and Salem by April 2014. The bank has a plan to adopt over 64 villages across the country for integrated development. In Pune Circle, Ghangaldare a village 102 km away from Pune has been adopted under the scheme.
