Federal Bank to open office in UAE by September

New Delhi, Aug 17: The Federal Bank today announced plans to open its representative office in UAE, besides opening 29 new branches across the country.

''We have got the RBI permission and have approached UAE authorities in this regard. The branch is expected to be opened in September this year,'' Federal Bank Executive Director K S Harshan told UNI.

Headquartered at Kerala, the bank will open 29 new branches across the country, taking its total number to 501 by April next year, he added.

The bank, which opened its 475th branch, third of the proposed 29, at Mayur Vihar-I in East Delhi today, is also targeting to achieve total business (advances plus deposites) of over Rs 38,200 crore by the end of current fiscal, as against Rs 29,600 crore in FY06 ending March 31, 2006.

Mr Harshan further said if the Supreme Court decision goes in its favour, the bank will take over the Ganesh Bank of Kurundwad in Maharashtra, which will add 32 more branches to its total this year. The Bombay High Court in an interim order had stayed the merger of Ganesh Bank with the Federal Bank.

Earlier, Federal Bank has also announced joint venture to offer insurance services with IDBI Bank and Fortis. It will be holding 26 per cent in the JV, with an investment of Rs 150 crore in seven years, he informed.

Given the fundamental strength and positioning, Federal Bank is poised to occupy an important role in the emerging Indian banking landscape.

Predominantly in the Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) and retail segments, the bank offers various loan and fee-based products and services to large corporates, medium-sized enterprises and certain specified sectors, in the agriculture sector.

To improve its scalability, keeping pace with the changes demanded by the competition in the emerging banking senario, the bank is in the process of shifting its entire operations to Core Banking Solutions.

At present, it has over 337 ATMs across 23 states in India.

UNI