Vijaya Bank expects to open 1,000 branches

Vijaya Bank expects to open 1,000 branches by the end of the current financial year. The bank is also targeting total business of Rs 43,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

In Andhra Pradesh, the bank expects the total business to cross Rs 3,500 crore this fiscal, an increase of 20.6 per cent over last fiscal's total business.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating the bank's 891th branch in Jubilee Hills, M S Aftab, executive director of Vijaya Bank, said, "We want to be a significant player in the industry and to improve the bank's market share we plan to expand our branch network."

Out of the total business of Rs 43,000 crore, the bank expects Rs 28,000 crore of deposits and Rs 15,000 crore of advances during the current fiscal. The bank's total business for the last financial year was Rs 32,350 crore with deposits at Rs 21,015 crore and advances at Rs 11,334 crore.

The bank, which operates in two divisions in the state "� Hyderabad division and Vijayawada division, has 79 branches.

H Vittaldas Shetty, deputy general manager, Vijaya Bank said, "Out of the total business of Rs 3,500 crore, we expect the total business of the Hyderabad division to be around Rs 2,000 crore and the Vijayawada division's business to be around Rs 1,500 crore."

According to him, the total business of the bank in the Hyderabad division currently is Rs 1,700 crore and the total business of the Vijayawada division is Rs 1,200 crore.

Vijaya Bank is in the process of implementing Infosys Technologies' core banking solution Finacle across its branches. Aftab said that at present 50 branches have implemented the CBS and expects to add another 50 by the end of the financial year.

The bank also plans to open one more branch in the city to take the total number of branches in the state to 80 by the end of the financial year. Shetty said that the bank plans to install 12 automatic teller machines (ATMs) by the end of the current financial year.

According to Shetty, the advances towards the agriculture sector have crossed 36 per cent of the total net bank credit in the state.

"The retail lending will continue to be a focus area for the bank which is currently at 50 per cent of the total net bank credit in the state," he said.