Karnataka Bank to up branch tally to 408

Allahabad, Jan 12 (UNI) Mangalore-based scheduled commercial bank in the private sector, Karnataka Bank plans to open five more branches shortly to up its branch tally to 408.

The bank's fully computerised 403rd branch was inaugurated by Allahabad Mayor Chaudhary Jitendra Nath Singh here today.

Talking to newspersons, bank's Chairman and CEO Ananthakrishan said the bank was on an expansion spree and plans to open a branch each at Kanpur, Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Silguri (West Bengal), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Panipat (Haryana) shortly.

''At present, our 83-year-old 'time tested bank' in private sector has 402 branches in 19 states and two union territories.'' He said the bank has a client base of more than 2.8 million, trained staff of above 4,400 and over a lakh shareholders.

The market capital of the bank's stock has already crossed Rs 1,800 crore and its share is presently being traded at above Rs 150.

''The bank has been showing consistent growth in profitability and for the fiscal 2005-06, we posted an all time high net profit of Rs 176 crore,'' Mr Ananthakrishna said.

Karnataka Bank was the first among the old generation private sector banks and nationalised banks to adopt core banking solutions (CBS) and initiate networking of branches way back in 2000.

''We have already networked more than 370 branches across the country and over 97 per cent of our business is under CBS, facilitating anywhere-anytime banking to our customers.'' The bank's Chief General Manager Jayarama Bhatt was also present on the occasion.

UNI