Tamilnad Mercantile Bank is in the process of reorienting its business to get into the next phase of growth. It is expanding its footprint pan-India to become a ‘truly national bank’ in the next four years, and focus more on roping in big corporate clients, said Upendra Kamath, MD and CEO of the bank.
Doubling branchesOver 85 per cent of its network of 403 branches is in Tamil Nadu. The bank is planning to double its branch network. “By 2020, we would have at least 800 branches across the country,” he said. Thus far, the focus of the bank was predominantly on Tamil Nadu. Though the State will continue to remain the key focus market, in a calibrated way the bank will expand its footprint outside as well, Kamath said.
According to him, by spreading its wings further, TMB will be able to reduce the risk of concentration. Besides, since it confined itself mostly to the State, there was no exposure to a diverse range of businesses in other parts of the country. Though the bank enjoys tremendous brand equity in the southern districts of the State, we may reach a saturation point, he explained.
In addition, from being a “trader-oriented bank”, TMB has decided to focus more on corporate lending. “Though agriculture, retail and micro, small and medium enterprises will continue to be our focus area, we have slowly started looking at corporate business as well.” As a prelude to this, it has launched four corporate branches in Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Export-import trade will also be given importance.
It is also in the process of hiring professionals, including statisticians, economists and corporate credit specialists, to control new focus areas, he said.