Syndicate Bank plans to enter BPO sector

Syndicate Bank, which is entering the capital market for the second time, is planning to foray into the BPO sector and is awaiting approval from RBI.

Announcing the bank's public offer, S Malhotra, general manager of Syndicate Bank, said that since the bank had already implemented centralised banking solutions, high end technology would make a number of employees redundant.

He said that the idea was to re-deploy these employees in BPO activities for foreign companies in the fields of life insurance and other financial intermediaries.

At present, the staff strength of Syndicate Bank is nearly 26,000.

Besides entering the BPO arena, the bank was also planning to set up a subsidiary to act as an asset management company for floating a venture capital fund for rural development.

Meanwhile, the bank was issuing 50 million shares at a price of Rs 10 per share, the premium of which would be decided through the book-building route. The issue would primarily augment Tier I capital to meet the Basell II norms on capital adequacy.