Syndicate Bank opens 108 branches in a day

Bangalore, March 31 (IANS) Setting a record of sorts, state-run Syndicate Bank Saturday opened 108 new branches across 15 states and Andaman & Nicobar islands simultaneously through the electronic route from here.

Union Minister of State for Finance Namo Narayan Meena, who was present on the occasion, used the bank's electronic system to inaugurate all the 108 branches at a time remotely.

With the addition of 108 branches, the leading bank's branch network across the country has gone up to 2,700 in fiscal 2011-12.

Though the bank has two all-women branches at Karwar in Uttara Kannada district of coastal Karnataka and in Mumbai, the last bank (2,700th) branch opened Saturday at Padmanabha Nagar in southern suburb of this city will be the third one.

"As the bank's core operations are fully computerised and most of the transactions are carried online using the intra-network, the minister was able to unveil 108 branches simultaneously using the e-way," a bank official told IANS.

Of the 108 branches, 18 are located across the bank's home state (Karnataka), followed by 14 each in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Andhra Pradesh, eight each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven in Maharashtra, four each in Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, three each in Assam and Bihar, two in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and Andaman.

To give thrust to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), the bank has opened dedicated branches at Hubli and Belgaum in Karnataka and Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

The Manipal-based bank has a total business of Rs.277,000 crore, consisting of Rs.153,405 crore deposits and Rs.123,595 crore advances.

The minister also opened a dedicated branch at Bhemanakuppa on the city's outskirts to provide financial services to rural customers in the surrounding villages and ensure their financial inclusion.

Bank's chairman and managing director M.G. Sanghvi and heads of other state-run banks were present on the occasion.