Mumbai: The Bangalore-based public sector lender Vijaya Bank aims a 20 percent growth in overall business in the current financial year with added focus on increasing its low-cost deposit base, a top official said.
"We aim an overall business growth of around 20 percent in the current financial year, which should reach around Rs 1,65,000 crore," executive director Subhalakshmi Panse told PTI on Sunday.
In the past fiscal, total business stood at Rs 1,41,727 crore, which comprised Rs 83,056 crore deposits and Rs 58,671 crore advances.
"On the advances and deposit fronts, we hope to post 18-20 percent growth this fiscal," she said adding that advances should reach Rs 68,000-70,000 crore and deposits around Rs 92,000 crore.
The Reserve Bank has set a deposit growth target of 16 percent and 17 percent for advances in the current financial year.
Referring to growth in the current account, savings account (Casa) deposit base, Panse said this will get the highest priority during this fiscal.
"We hope to grow our low-cost deposit base in order to protect our margin with lesser dependence on bulk deposits," she said.
By the end of last fiscal, the ratio of Casa to overall deposit stood at around 22 percent and the bank now aims to increase this base.
"We plan to open 100 new branches in tier-II cities, through which, we can tap the growing middle-class population in these regions. Also, we are planning to come up with new products for HNI customers, along with tapping the NRI customer base," Panse said.
About the NPA movement in the current fiscal, she said NPA numbers would witness a decline this year.
"We aim to reduce the gross NPA to around 2.4 percent from 2.94 percent reported last fiscal and net NPA in the range of 1.3-1.4 percent from 1.7 percent level," she said, adding that new loan accounts may come for restructuring in the current financial year.
Panse, however, said it would be difficult to project net interest margin (NIM) for this fiscal due to current economic environment.
The bank reported a 234 percent jump in its net profit to Rs 180.97 crore for the fourth quarter of FY12, up from Rs 54.25 crore in the year-ago period.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, May 06, 2012, 14:33