Date:16/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/08/16/stories/2004081602040100.htm

Back OBC chief allays fears of GTB customers

C.R. Sukumar

Hyderabad , Aug 15

WITH all branches of the erstwhile Global Trust Bank (GTB) coming under the fold of the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) from Saturday, the OBC top brass is busy in an exercise to boost the morale of the staff and customers of GTB.

Welcoming the customers of GTB into the OBC fold, the OBC Chairman and Managing Director, Mr B. D. Narang, clarified the issues about which the customers had doubts.

"You can now operate your account and use your ATM/debit card in the same way as you were doing earlier. You continue to enjoy technology driven services like anytime-anywhere banking, Internet banking and tele-banking. The ATM and branch network of the erstwhile GTB on an all India level remains unchanged," Mr Narang said in a letter to the customers of GTB.

"Since the total workforce of the erstwhile GTB comes aboard OBC, you will interact with the same personnel at its various service outlets. You can continue to operate your lockers. Your demat accounts also remain unaffected," he said. To boost the confidence of the customers, the OBC CMD said, "You are now part of a bank which is rated as one of the strongest in the country, the first bank to declare zero per cent net NPAs, with an impeccable track record of earning profits over the last 60 years along with one of the highest per employee productivity."

Mr Narang said, "The amalgamation of GTB with OBC marks an impressive confluence of OBC's financial solidity and GTB's techno-savvy customer orientation."

Explaining the purpose of the OBC officials' visits to the GTB branches in the last couple of days, a senior OBC official told Business Line, "The idea is to directly meet the customers after the lifting of the moratorium and gauge their confidence levels in the bank. The exercise is targeted at retaining all those customers and also to bringing back the customers who left the bank following panic developments earlier."

Clarifying that OBC staff will not be deployed at all the branches of GTB, Mr Narang said, "Such a move is highly unwarranted and will lead to insecurity among the workforce of erstwhile GTB. For the sort of activities the branches of erstwhile GTB are into, there is absolutely no need for any supervision at majority of the branches. All the operations can be monitored from the headquarters of GTB online. However, we may deploy our senior officials at some of the key branches of erstwhile GTB with an idea of assisting the staff in credit appraisal and disbursal."