Bank of Baroda to enter insurance sector

Chennai, Oct 05 (UNI) Leading public sector bank Bank of Baroda proposes to set up a joint venture with an insurance company and plans to enter stock broking and wealth management services, Anil K Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director said today.

Talking to media after launching the Bank's 10th 'Retail Loan Factory' here, he said the bank in future would focus on finance, insurance and mutual funds and become a 'one stop financial shop'.

He said the Bank was yet to identify its partner for a joint venture on insurance and talks were in a very advanced stage. 'We are holding talks with a foreign asset management company for setting up the joint venture,' he added.

The retail loan factory was a unique addition to the bank's many customer centric initiatives and aimed at providing hassle-free loan. 'We are the only bank in the country to provide housing loan in just six days,' he said.

The Retail Loan Factory worked on the Assembly Line Principle and used the best technology to sanction retail loans in six days flat.

The bank would soon have such factories in Hyderabad, followed by Lucknow and Kanpur, he said.

The bank proposed to open 100 branches in the South by 2010 and 25 branches by March next. Ten of the new branches would be located in Tamil Nadu, he added.

The Bank also planned to open branhces in ten new countries majority of them in Gulf countries. It would open its ninth branch in the United Kingdom and had filed applications for opening branches in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, he added.

UNI WS AA 2020