Central Bank kicks off separate retail section

By Abhishek Anand

In an effort to increase its focus on retail business, Central Bank
of India has started a separate retail banking division.
S Sridhar, chairman and managing director of Central Bank of India,
said the bank plans to launch a series of products on the retail portfolio.
“During the past few years, Central Bank has veered away from retail
customers. But, we have decided to do a course correction.

We would be launching several prepaid cards, including travel,
payroll and student cards, among others. By launching these cards,
we hope to regain our hold among retail customers,”
Sridhar said while launching the bank’s prepaid gift card,
‘Cent gift cards’.

The newly launched gift cards can be loaded with
any value between Rs 500 and Rs 50,000 and could be
used at any outlet displaying MasterCard signage.
The bank would focus a lot on mobile banking services
and would utilise this platform for financial inclusion purpose
as well.

Asked about the performance of the bank during the first half
of the present financial year, Sridhar said, “The credit growth
has been sluggish all throughout the period with the exception
of last two weeks of September. Overall, the credit growth has
been to the tune of 18 per cent year-on-year.


As far as deposits are concerned, the growth
has been to the tune of 23 per cent.”

On the interest rate front, Sridhar said, “During our customary
meeting with RBI, most of the bankers favoured status quo and
the banking regulator has to wait for some more time before
concluding whether a recovery is well and truly underway or not.”