London: Despite economic downturn, four
branches of the Punjab National Bank in Britain doubled their
deposits in the six months ending September 2009, official
sources here said.
Punjab National Bank (International) Ltd is a wholly
owned subsidiary of PNB, India.
PNBIL started operations in the UK in May 2007 with
two branches in London and Southall, and later opened two more
branches in Leicester and Birmingham, which have large
minorities of people of Indian origin.
Mukesh Khurana, manager of the PNB branch in
Leicester, told PTI that PNBIL’s account base in the UK has
increased from 5500 on 31 March 2009 to over 10,000 on 30
September 2009.
He said: "During this period, customer deposits have
more than doubled from USD 146 million to USD 304 million thus
registering a growth of 108 per cent. Customer advances have
reached USD 436 million. With a capital base of USD 78 million
and balance sheet size of USD 674 million, the bank has posted
pre-tax profit of USD 3.16 million during the half year".
The encouraging results were reviewed by M V Tanksale,
Executive Director, Punjab National Bank during his visit here
last week at meetings with S R Sharma, MD, M S Nayak, ED, and
other senor officers of PNBIL.
According to Sharma, the healthy growth had been
possible on the strength of strong brand equity of its parent,
PNBIL’s technology based products (like Chip & PIN based Debit
Card, Internet Banking and On-Line Deposit/Remittance
products), competitive interest rates and customer centric
approach.
PNBIL has followed the concept of Relationship
Banking, which has enabled it to expand its customer base in
such a short span of time.
Remittances to India remains a major attraction for
NRIs due to attractive exchange rates, low remittance charges
(free transfer of funds to PNB accounts) and same day transfer
facility.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 15:03