The Hindu Business Line : Lord Krishna Bank goes aggressive on expansion

LORD Krishna Bank has embarked on an aggressive campaign to improve its services in the South. As part of this campaign, the bank has shifted its branch in Coimbatore to a more strategic location.

The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr R.M. Nayak, said Lord Krishna Bank (LKB) with a network of 105 branches spread across 11 states, proposed to add nine more branches to reinforce its pan-India network.

"We have 9 licences on hand and will be applying for more to maintain the growth momentum," Mr Nayak said.

Similarly, all efforts were being made to make it a one-stop shop for financial products, he said and briefed about the tie-up with ICICI Prudential and Bajaj Allianz for marketing life and non-life insurance products, apart from a distribution alliance with top mutual funds in the country such as SBI MF, LIC MF, Prudential ICICI, HDFC MF, Franklin Templeton, Standard Chartered MF and DSP Merryll Lynch.

To provide value added services to its NRI clients and the exporting community, the bank has tied up with Western Union Financial services. Besides these tie-ups, the bank has a rupee drawing arrangement with exchange companies such as Al-Ansari Exchange and UAE Exchange Centre in Abu Dhabi and Wall Street Exchange Centre, Dubai, Mr Nayak said.

On performance, he said the bank had clocked a total business of over Rs 3,000 crore, growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent. "Even in these tough times, we have managed to improve our performance. We have achieved a 30 per cent growth this year compared to 20 per cent last year," he said.

Mr Nayak said establishing its presence at strategic locations helped in significant expansion of business. "We had been until 2001, offering mere banking services to the NRI clientele. But now, we have started to take care of their local needs by adding value to our services. A personal touch with the NRI customer would go a long way in improving our business on this front and this is how we intend to tap the potential."

However, the thrust area would be on retail financing, home and personal loans, he added.