Vijaya Bank to open 100 new branches, most in North

Zirakpur(Punjab), July 21 (UNI) The south-based Vijaya Bank today announced to open 100 new branches in current fiscal, many of them in the northern region, as a part of its expansion plans.

The bank's Chairman and Managing Director Prakash P Mallya said at the opening of a new branch here, that at present the bank has a total of 985 branches and by March 2008 the target is to increase them by 100 more.

He said a majority of these branches will come in the northern states and Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have four, eight and two respectively.

The Bank was planning to spread its wings out of the country and an announcement regarding its branches in foreign countries will be made soon, he added.

Mr Mallya said the bank has registered a spectacular 39 per cent rise in its business in the last fiscal which crossed the figure of Rs 62,000 crore with 161 per cent increase in net profit which was about Rs 331 crore.

The Bank has an ambitious goal of reaching the mark of Rs 76,000 crore by March 2008 and one lakh crore by March 2009, he said.

The Union Minister of State Pawan Kumar Bansal, who inaugurated the new branch, appealed to the bankers to focus on the rural areas for their hundred per cent financial inclusion to ensure that the benefits of the Central welfare project reached every family of the country.

He was informed by Mr Mallya that 100 per cent financial inclusion had been achieved in Mandya district of Karnataka.

UNI