Country's third largest urban cooperative lender Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank, which today adopted a new name and brand identity, says it is keen to convert itself into a commercial bank once regulatory clarity is in place.
"We have an in-principle approval from our board for conversion into a commercial bank. This new brand name and identity is the first step in that direction," the 107-year- old SVC Bank (the new name of the bank) Chairman Suresh Hemmady said here after launching the new name and logo.
Hemmady said he hoped to see some regulatory clarity from the Reserve Bank over the next two-three years but yet to approach the central bank with a formal proposal.
It can be noted that country's largest cooperative bank, the city-based Saraswat Bank, has been trying to convert itself into a commercial bank for quite some time but the RBI has not given a go ahead so far.
On the business side, Managing Director Shrinivas Joshi said the bank was targetting a near three-fold jump in its balance-sheet to Rs 45,000 crore over the next five years from the present Rs 17,500 crore and branch presence to double to 300 from the present 157 and also double net profit to Rs 200 crore from Rs 103 crore in FY'14.
"We have been growing at 20-25 per cent and we will continue to do so this year as well," Hemmady said.
There are 1,600 cooperative banks in the country and the city-based SVC Bank controls 4 per cent of the cooperative banking business, Joshi said.
SVC, which is the largest urban cooperative in terms of state-wide presence with branches in nine states, will be entering Haryana this year, Joshi said, adding, it will be adding 22 more new branches this year, for which it has sought RBI approval, which is yet to come.
The bank is currently present in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Gujarat, Goa, Delhi, MP and Rajasthan, making it the largest in terms of multi-state presence.
On the new brand name and logo, Hemmady said this change reflects the bank's vision for future expansion which includes reinforcing its position as one of the leading co-operatives in the country.
Joshi said SVC did not offer loans to traders but mostly to MSMEs and that constitute over 75 per cent of its assets, while home loans and retail loans constitute 13 per cent of the book.
Last fiscal, SVC Bank had reported a net profit of Rs 103 crore, with total business crossing Rs 17,500 crore, an increase of over 16 per cent in FY'13.
Its NIM stood at 3 per cent and it lends at 12-14 per cent interest. Its gross NPAs stood 3.6 per cent in the year while the net bad loan ratio stood at 2.1 per cent in FY'14.
The bank added 17 branches last fiscal. The bank's employee strength stood at over 2,200 last fiscal and customer base stood at over 6 lakh out of which 60,000 are current account holders.
