Centurion Bank expects merger of LKB to be completed by Q1

Bangalore, May 17 (UNI) The Centurion Bank of Punjab expect the merger of Lord Krishna Bank (LKB) of Kerala with it to be completed by the end of first quarter of current fiscal.

After opening the Bank's Regional Office here, Bank Managing Director and CEO Shailendra Bhandari told newspersons that the process had been held up for the RBI approval, delayed due to a litigation in Kerala High Court.

"The litigation had nothing to do with the merger proposal", he said, adding the Bank's Board had formally approved the merger.

The move would enable Centurion Bank of Punjab to extend its footprint in South, especially in Kerala where the LKB had over 60 branches.

Expecting the last fiscal to end up with a total business of 26,000 crore, with deposits accounting for Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 11,000 crore for advances, he said Bank of Muscat which had a stake of 20 per cent would be infusing an additional Rs 250 crore once the LKB merger was completed. The Bank had on January successfully completed a Rs 200 crore Tier one funding from ICICI venture.

He said Centillion, the Bank's processing centre sent up as a joint venture with Indicom would very soon provide third party services. Located in Bangalore Centillion was currently acting as a central processing arm for all its retail loans.

He said the Bank was 100 per cent into Core Banking solution operating on the latest version of banking Solution Finacle from Infosys Technologies Limited.

Mr Bhandari said the Bank would also start brokerage services through a joint venture with TV 18 and Ambit financial services.

UNI