Punjab National Bank to leverage technology for business growth

Hrusikesh Mohanty / Kolkata/ Berhampur June 11, 2009, 0:00 IST

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Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second largest public sector bank aims to reach out to the customers in rural areas of the country through banking correspondents and also on the back of technology enabled services like biometric smart cards.

We are not in favour of opening of the traditional bank branches, rather we want the banking facilities to reach the door steps of the people in rural areas”, said KC Chakrabarty, chairman and managing director of PNB.

PNB has opened its first technology enabled branch on a pilot basis at Daringibadi in south Orissa’s Kandhamal district. Depending on the success of this branch, PNB would open similar branches in other parts of the country, Chakrabarty told Business Standard.

The PNB chairman was here to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the bank’s Farmers’ Training Centre at Karapalli, about 20 km from here.

The customers of PNB in the rural areas are issued biometric smart cards. With the help of these smart cards, the customers can make transactions at their doorsteps without going to the bank’s branch.

PNB’s business correspondent who travels in the villages is provided with a point of transaction (POT) machine. The system provides receipt record to the customers instantly.

“In the next four years, the bank will concentrate on spreading its business through the business correspondents in rural areas, where low value but high volume transactions take place” Chakrabarty said.

Despite harnessing of technology enabled transactions, the bank would open 115 more branches in strategic locations across the country in the current fiscal, he added.

Ruling out any impact of the global financial meltdown on the bank’s business growth, Chakrabarty claimed PNB had reported a 59 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 865 crore in 2008-09.

The total income of PNB rose by 38 per cent to reach Rs 6,098 crore. The net profit of the bank stood at Rs 3,091 crore by the end of March 31, 2009.

PNB aimed to grow at the rate of 25 per cent and 22 percent on deposits and advances respectively in 2009-10. On the advances side, the bank has stressed on agriculture, SME (small and medium enterprises) and education loans, he said.