Private sector Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) is keen on entering the mortgage business, a top official said here today.
"We are very keen to enter the mortgage business. At the moment we are looking in changing our corporate look. Definitely, we will look into mortgage business sometime later this year...," Lakshmi Vilas Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director P R Somasundaram told reporters here.
Besides, he said the company with the present market conditions would not look for an aggressive market growth.
"We were successful in the last six months... But, I do not want to take any undue risk...," he said.
Commenting about their plans for looking at a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise capital to fund growth, he said they would take a decision in another two months.
"We have taken up a 40% dilution in August last year. But we have to look at the markets... We are also talking to investors... We will take a decision in the next couple of months...," he said.
Somasundaram and senior bank officials were here to announce the launch of Interbank Mobile Payment Service enabling customers to do "fund" transfer using mobile phones. According to him, LVB was the first private sector bank in South India to offer this facility.
The bank has tied-up with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for offering this service in which the latter would be paid Rs 0.25 paise per transaction, NPCI Chief Operating Officer M Balakrishnan said.
According to him, this facility is available in any of the 274 branches of the bank and would enable customers to transfer the funds "at ease".
Besides Lakshmi Vilas Bank, NPCI would offer this service to 25 banks by April end, he said.
LVB currently has 1.6 million accounts and has 2,675 employees in India.
