Indian Overseas Bank is hopeful that the Centre would soon infuse some capital in the public sector lender, M. Narendra, Chairman & Managing Director, has said.
This public sector lender had sought capital support of Rs 1,500 crore from the central government for the current financial year.
Narendra, who was in Delhi on Saturday for the Delhi Economics Conclave, told
IOB has Tier-I capital of 7.63 per cent and the expectations are that the capital support from the Centre would help lift the Tier-I capital above 8 per cent.
“We are waiting for the right market conditions. A decision on the timing of perpetual bonds issuance will have to be taken by the end of this month,” he said.
On branch expansion, Narendra said the branch network would be expanded to 3,000 branches by end March. Currently, IOB has about 2,736 branches across the country.
On credit growth, Narendra said that he expects IOB's credit growth to be around 16-18 per cent this financial year. This is lower than the earlier anticipated credit growth of 18-20 per cent this fiscal.
The Reserve Bank of India has projected a credit growth of 16 per cent in the banking industry this fiscal.
IOB is also looking to ramp up ATM network to 3,000 machines by end June 2013, from the current level of 1,600 machines.
Last financial year (2011-12), the Centre had infused Rs 1,441 crore capital into Indian Overseas Bank.