To augment credit flow to the SME segment, Corporation Bank opened its exclusive SME Loan Centre in Coimbatore on Saturday.
This is the bank’s eighth SME loan centre. The others are located at Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Vadodara. Mr Ajai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, formally launched the SME Loan Centre here.
The bank plans to open eight more SME Loan centres in the next two months, said Mr Ajai Kumar.
Later briefing presspersons, the Corporation Bank Chief said that the bank would look to strengthen its presence in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
A good number of its branches (numbering 1,500) are now concentrated in the South.
"We are looking to double our business in Coimbatore zone. It is around Rs 5,000 crore now; and we have a network of 50 branches. We will be adding 10 more branches in this zone in the next six months," he said.
On the loan centre, he said that since these centres are focused on the SME segment, it would help quicken the loan sanction process time. "Each SME Centre is supported by dedicated team of Relationship Managers and exclusive Central Credit Processing mechanism."
For the 2012-13 fiscal, the bank’s SME segment target is Rs 18,300 crore, which is 14 per cent of the projected net bank credit of Rs 1,27,000 crore.
Besides Mr Ajai Kumar, Mr Amar Lal Daultani, Executive Director and Mr B.V. Baliga, Deputy General Manager, Circle Office, Chennai, were also present.