Canara Bank seeks Rs 1,000 cr capital support from govt

State-owned Canara Bank on Monday said it has sought Rs 1,000 crore infusion from the  government to fund its overseas expansion. "We have approached the government for Rs 1,000 crore capital infusion in the current fiscal," Canara Bank chairman and managing director RK Dubey told PTI in New Delhi.

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"Although we don't require funds for domestic credit expansion this fiscal, capital would be needed for overseas  expansion," he said. The bank has got approval for opening up branches in Johannesburg in South Africa and Dubai.

The government holds about 68 percent in the bank and with the fresh capital infusion, its shareholding will go up  further. Asked about expectations from RBI's policy, Dubey said: "I think there is unlikely to be change in the interest rate tomorrow."

The RBI is scheduled to announce the first quarter review of monetary policy for 2013-14 on Tuesday. Broadly,  marketmen are expecting the central bank to maintain status quo. Meanwhile, in order to increase retail sector exposure, the bank is holding a loan carnival here focussing on housing, auto, education and MSME sectors.

At the same time, the bank also opened 5,000 savings, 3,500 recurring deposit and 1,000 current accounts. The government has already announced that the public sector banks will get Rs 14,000 crore additional capital from government during the current fiscal.

"Before end of March 2013, we should provide Rs 12,51 crore to infuse additional capital into 13 public sector banks. In 2013-14, I propose to provide a further amount of Rs 14,000 crore for capital infusion," finance minister P Chidambaram had said in his Budget speech.

"We should ensure that public sector banks always meet Basel III regulations as they come into force in a phased manner," he had said while presenting the Union Budget 2013-14 in Parliament.

Implementation of Basel III capital regulations envisages enhancing requirement of core equity capital by banks due to higher capital ratios. The Basel III capital ratios will be fully phased in as on March 31, 2018.