In just over a month of taking over the reigns of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB), its Managing Director and Chief Executive Upendra Kamath has chalked out growth plans for the bank.
He not only envisions making this Tamil Nadu-centric entity a pan-India bank but also targets a business volume of ₹1 lakh crore and 800 branches across the country in four years.
“This milestone will become a reality soon,” he told a select audience in Coimbatore on Monday.
Kamath was in the city to inaugurate the 715th ATM of the bank and the new premises of one of the bank’s oldest branches.
TMB has a network of 383 branches and 715 ATMs at present.
“We have limited presence outside the State as over 300 branches are located in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Our mid-term goal, therefore, is to establish a pan-India presence,” he told reporters.
While the bank would continue to strengthen its presence in Tamil Nadu, it would, within the next 15-18 months, expand its reach in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat. “We will go beyond the Vindhyas in the second phase,” he added.
Corporate lending Reverting to business, he said “on the credit side, the growth drivers are sectors such as agriculture, retail, micro, small and medium businesses and other priority sector advances. We are not into corporate lending. We are looking to foray into this space.”
The bank is setting up corporate branches at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Bangalore. “Before embarking on this exercise of setting up specialised corporate branches, we will be opening corporate banking cell in an existing branch in the said locations, and train a team on corporate banking. This should happen within the next 45 days.”
“Plans are afoot for setting up centralised loan processing cells to bring down the turnaround time,” he added.
While speeding up on the technology front, TMB is also looking to provide door-step banking services. “We are in the process of finalising a product. It will be launched soon,” Kamathsaid.