The Hindu : Syndicate Bank's net profit up by 37 p.c.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 27, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Syndicate Bank's net profit up by 37 p.c.

By Our Staff Correspondent

Manipal June 26. The Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank, Michael Bastian, on Thursday said that the net profit of the bank had increased by 37.35 per cent in 2002-03 over the previous year.

Addressing presspersons after the fourth annual general meeting of shareholders of the bank here, Mr. Bastian said the net profit had increased from Rs. 250.55 crore to Rs. 344.13 crore as on March 2003. The operating profit of the bank showed an increase of 74.19 per cent at Rs. 618.79 crore over the previous year's Rs. 355.24 crore.

Global business had crossed Rs. 47,687 crore from Rs. 44,058 crore. Savings bank deposits at Rs. 8,600 crore had increased by over 15 per cent. Low-cost deposits constituted 41.32 per cent of total deposits. The credit/deposit ratio had increased to 50.24 per cent from 47.21 per cent. The cost of funds was 4.96 per cent and the cost of deposits was 5.97 per cent.

The global advances of the bank grew from Rs. 15,510 crore to Rs. 17,026 crore as on March 2003. In credit, the focus would be on retail loan. The bank had declared a dividend of 15 per cent for 2002-03 as against 12 per cent in the previous year.

Setting the agenda for the future, Mr. Bastian said the bank aimed at achieving a global business of Rs. 57,000 crore by March 2004.

On the technology front, the bank had adopted centralised banking solutions (CBS) as the architecture for its multi-channel delivery platform. With an array of delivery channels in place and the geographical reach, the bank was in a position to scale up operations to the targeted level. He claimed that Syndicate Bank was the only one among public sector banks to have the CBS. The bank had gone for the IBM i-flex platform, which was the best in the industry.

The bank was focusing on leveraging Internet banking and tele-banking to enhance convenience for its customers. The bank plans to open 150 to 200 new branches in the current year with no additional overheads by re-deploying staff rendered surplus in CBS branches and swapping excess premises surrendered in the new CBS branches.

A new thrust had been given to marketing with the constitution of marketing teams at the zonal and regional offices level. The initiative for relationship banking, setting up a marketing division, coupled with plans to expand branch network were expected to facilitate expansion of the customer base at least by 10 per cent during the current year from the present 20 million to 22 million in March 2004.

On human resource management, the bank would develop special competencies of the staff for credit appraisal and risk management in an environment of deregulation and openness. The bank was grooming future leaders and mentors through special training programmes, Mr. Bastian said.

K.M. Shet, Executive Director of the bank, was present.

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