Catholic Syrian Bank eyes Rs 9,000 cr biz

Thrissur - headquartered (Kerala) Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) is looking at closing this financial year with a business of Rs 9,000 crore, as against Rs 7,700 crore in the previous year. Bank chairman and CEO R Venkataraman said, as of January 31, the bank had seen a business of Rs 8,700 crore.

It is looking at deposits of Rs 5,600 crore and advances of Rs 3,400 crore to achieve the target. The chairman inaugurated the bank's 117th ATM in the city recently.

CSB plans to open 50 branches across the country over the next two years. By April, five branches would come up at Jamnagar (Gujarat), Hyderabad, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and Devanahalli near Bangalore.

As of December 2007, the net NPA stood at 1.92 per cent and efforts were on to reduce it to 1.80 per cent by the end of this fiscal. Venkataraman said they planned to bring 300 branches under the core banking system by December. The bank would also unveil mobile ATMs in cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Chennai, Tirupur and Coimbatore.