LVB business to touch Rs 10,000 crore

Tiruchirapalli, Nov 21: The total business of leading private sector Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) is poised to touch Rs 10,000 crore before end of this fiscal, Bank Chairman and Chief Eecutive Officer R M Nayak said.

With the total turnover crossing Rs 8000 crore at the end of the first half of this year, the bank hoped to touch the Rs 10,000 crore mark before the end of this fiscal, he told reporters here yesterday.

Stating that the customer base was close to 3.5 million, he said with 232 branches across 12 states' in the country, the bank had ambitious plans to double it before 2007-08.

Elaborating the strategies, he said the bank was seeking clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open 25 more branches to be located in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.

The management had decided to strengthen its marketing teams by appointing Guardian Executives in the Head Office to monitor cliental growth in each of the eight divisions of the bank. Besides that, minimum two marketing executives, under the nomenclature of Business Development Officers would be appointed in every branch to tone up the business strength and enhance customer base, he informed.

The bank was in the process of networking the branches for which it had signed a MoU with I-SLES for software solutions and system integration with WIPRO. With the introduction of these systems, 65 to 75 per cent of the bank business would come under the ambitious exercise of anytime, anywhere banking (ATAB) solutions.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) had given clearance to LVB to market general insurance policies with the collaboration of Bajaj Allianz. Soon, LVB branches across the country would market policies of general insurance, household articles, burglary, fire for clients, he added.

UNI