A recent press report said that Federal Bank is looking at substantial expansion of its footprint in the next 12-24 months by adding another 245 branches to its present network of 755.
Mr. Shyam Srinivasan, Chief Executive and Managing Director, of the bank said that the branch network of the bank would grow to 1,000 by the fourth quarter of 2012. He said that the bank is adequately capitalized to expand and grow.
On the proposed addition to the bank’s ATM network, Mr. Shyam said that this will not be as significant as expansion of branch network as Federal Bank customers have access to over 75,000 ATMs (of all banks) across the country and it does not charge its customers for using other bank ATMs. He said that the number of ATMs is expected to grow to 900 when the branch network reaches 1,000.
Mr. Shyam said that Fedfina has grown by over 150 per cent in the last one year. He said that the business volumes have grown to over Rs 2,200 crore in end-June 2011 from Rs. 900 crore last September. Referring to the gold loan business being taken care of by this NBFC arm, he said there is huge potential for growth in this space.
Asked how he managed to compete in this space, he said that the bank targets a different clientele and its business model, product positioning and pricing are also different.