Private sector Karur Vysya bank has drawn up plans to set up dedicated home loan branches after recording a 25 per cent growth in loan disbursal as of March last financial year.
The Tamil Nadu-based bank was also planning to open 35 more branches and 500 business correspondents this year, Karur Vysya Bank Managing Director and CEO Ramesh Babu said on Tuesday.
Karur Vysya Bank inaugurated its 800th branch in Anna Nagar here and seven others in the state, besides one each in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
"We have opened our dedicated home loan branch in Hyderabad and now we are planning to open in Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai. These branches will be handling the majority of distributing home loans. these sorts of focus will be there," he told reporters.
Elaborating, Babu said the bank was performing well in home loans and loan against property segments.
"Under loan against property as of last year March, we have grown by more than 25 per cent and that is the demand we are seeing. Our focus will be on self-employed people (to disburse home loans)." he said.
The bank, he said, would also focus on disbursing gold loans since the demand for it was also there.
Noting that opening a branch was a 'costly affair', he said the bank was planning to have 500 business correspondents who would be able to serve customers by opening an account, carry out regular transactions, and can also give reference to the bank if they want loans.
"... this year we are planning to open another 35 branches and 500 business correspondents… All these 835 branches and business correspondents will become our touchpoints."
Babu also referred to the bank's new 'Feet for Street' initiative under which 500 people have been outsourced by the bank.
"They will be meeting the customers at their doorstep and the main focus of the team is to open current and savings accounts. They will mobilize that, so we have taken people from various banks. We will be having around 1,300 people in the next 1.5 years," he said.
The main role of the agents is to acquire new accounts while the branches would be serving existing customers.
"Our intention is to slowly take our CASA to 40 percent, which is 33 per cent currently," he said.
Babu said apart from providing gold loans, the bank would focus on partnership with dairy firms so that farmers who are supplying milk also get 'financed.'
To a query about fund-raising, he said there was no need to raise any capital as the bank holds 18.5 per cent capital portfolio more than the 11.5 per cent as stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India. "there may not be much needed to raise capital and after one year we will see, if advances growth is so robust and growing, we will go to market," he said.
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