Bank of India, the first public sector bank to establish a foreign branch, would open another five overseas offices and raise tier-II capital of Rs 300-500 crore (Rs 3-5 billion) to improve its capital adequacy ratio.
The bank, having 24 foreign offices in 12 countries, has decided to open another five offices in Belgium, China, Vietnam, Tanzania and Qatar, BoI CMD M Balachandran told reporters on Thursday.
"We have approvals from the government and Reserve Bank of India for opening these offices. However, we are yet to obtain approval of the regulators in those countries," he said.
Targeting the NRI community in those countries, Balachandran said "we are spotting places where the foreign trade with India is growing fast in recent years."
Besides, the bank was also mulling a new office in Bangladesh and planning to reopen its Karachi branch in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the bank, which witnessed a decline in capital adequacy ratio from 11.3 per cent last fiscal to 10.5 per cent in June, 2005, has decided to raise tier-II capital of Rs 300-500 crore to improve its CAR by about 0.5 per cent.
"We can raise Rs 300-500 crore tier-II capital anytime. We also have a mandate for raising Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) tier-I capital, but we are waiting to see if it will be required at all as our CAR position is quite comfortable," the CMD said.
He said BoI expected a healthy growth in business volume from Rs 1,31,000 crore (Rs 1310 billion) in 2004-5 to Rs 1,65,000 crore (Rs 1650 billion) this fiscal with a 20 per cent growth in credit and 18 per cent increase in total deposits.
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