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GTB to focus retail banking

Rajalakshmi Menon

MUMBAI, Sept. 6

GLOBAL Trust Bank (GTB) is planning to broadbase its retail customer base to six lakhs by March 2001 and over a million by March 2002. To achieve this, the bank plans to set up 300 ATMs by March 2001 and increase its branch network to 100.

According to the Executive Vice-President, Mr. P. C. Narayan, the bank had achieved a customer base of four lakhs in the year 1999-2000 and had added 70,000 new customers in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The bank was in the process of identifying a retail partner for technical expertise in the retail segment. ``A decision on an alliance will be taken in the next few months,'' said Mr. Diptesh Shah, Head, Investment Banking.

For its foray into insurance, the bank was studying various options and a decision would be taken on this shortly, said Mr. Sridhar Subasri, Executive Director. However, the bank would certainly distribute insurance products.

In Internet banking, the bank was hoping to achieve a customer base of 50,000 customers from the current 15,000 by the end of the calendar year.

``We have overhauled our site to provide our customers with more information, besides making accessibility faster and more effective,'' said Mr. Narayan.

The bank has also tied up with some petroleum companies to install ATMs at service stations. ``We are in the process of setting up a system whereby any credit cardholder could withdraw money through our ATMs. For this, we are talking to both Visa and Mas terCard,'' said Mr. Narayan.

GTB has also tied up with utility companies such as MTNL and BSES, whereby, customers can make payments through ATMs or the Net. The bank has also entered into a relationship with TataTele Systems and BPL Mobile and is currently in talks with several oth er mobile operators.

Mutual funds will be sold shortly through the bank's branches and the bank was negotiating with three such AMCs. The bank was also entering the retail asset business of consumer, housing and vehicle loans by October.