Allahabad Bank on growth path declares 10% Interim Dividend

Shri O. N. Singh on taking over as Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank on 04.12.2003, chaired his first Board Meeting at Mumbai today morning. In his briefing to the press in the afternoon, Shri Singh informed that:

• The Board of Directors of the Bank in its meeting held on 20.12.2003 has approved a proposal for 10% interim dividend.

• The Bank is targeting to bring down its ratio of net non performing assets to net credit from the present level of just below 5% to 1% by Mar’ 2005. By the end of current financial year, the Bank would reduce its net NPA to 4%.

• The Bank has decided to put in place Benchmark PLR very shortly which may be at least 50 basis point lower than its current PLR of 11.5%.

• On the business growth plan, Bank’s present business (Advances & Deposits) pegged at Rs.42000crores is projected to grow to Rs.60000crores by March’2005.

• The Bank will finalise its business focus, plans and strategy within a month. The Bank will embark on drawing up a new business plan along with the technology plan and human resources plan since all these three are to go together. In its business strategy, the Bank will move towards segmentation of branches on the lines of lending activity and may rationalize 150 branches by either closing, relocating or merging their business to avoid duplication and control of operational costs.

• In technology front, the Bank is gearing up to put in place the "Core Banking Solution" and during the next fiscal, the Bank plans to have at least 200 branches on core banking platform to improve customer services and deployment of resources optimally. The major function of the information technology will be to support our retail initiatives.

• The Bank would continue to focus on retail and add another 100 "Retail Banking Boutiques" which will be housed within the existing branch premises, an unique one-stop delivery channel of its kind in the industry launched by the Bank 3 years ago.

• The Bank is all set to mark its presence in international banking arena with setting up of OBUs and looking at the centres like Noida Special Economic Zone. The Bank is also considering opening of overseas branches in countries with emerging economy like China, Srilanka, Indonesia, etc to follow Indian trade as "We are not interested in the developed markets which are already very crowded".

• In Human Resource Management, the Bank will place priorities on talent and knowledge management to bring synergy in business with people system.