Cosmos Bank plans five acquisitions

The Cosmos Co-operative Bank is planning to acquire five banks this year. The bankers are in close talks with three banks from Hyderabad and two from Gujarat.

This acquisition will add 25 branches to the bank, said officials. The bank completes 100 years of operation in 2006.

The bank has come up with two special schemes for its customers and shareholders. For better ATM back up the bank is opening a new switch. The switch will help the customers access ATM services of ten other banks from 40 select ATM centres of the bank.

Cosmos started as a cooperative society in 1906, and became a cooperative bank in 1928. The bank achieved the target of deposits worth 100 crore and bagged the status of Scheduled bank. Later, it opened branches in four other states and became a Multi state scheduled bank in 1998.

"At present, the bank operates in four states along with Maharashtra. All 44 branches are computerised and linked together. The bank is handling total deposits worth more than Rs 3,000 crore and have disbursed loan of about Rs 1,700 crore. The number of registered members has crossed 41,500. The special scheme for capital market called 'Broker Terminal' is receiving overwhelming response," officials said.