E-Paper
Indian Bank may reopen Jaffna branch
The Sri Lankan government has urged Chennai-based Indian Bank to reopen its branches in the island nation.
The Sri Lankan government has urged Chennai-based Indian Bank to reopen its branches in the island nation.
The bank had shut its branch at Jaffna due to ethnic clashes between Tamil minorities and Sri Lankan authorities.
With peace slowly returning, the bank is looking at reopening the branch at Jaffna, while further expanding its presence in the island nation to tap the local Tamil speaking population.
“We have been approached by the Sri Lankan government to reopen the Jaffna branch and we would soon send a team of officials to assess the situation there and take a call,” said T.M. Bhasin, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank.
The bank already has a branch in Colombo. The chairman also said that the bank may also open more branches in Sri Lanka. Apart from Colombo, Indian Bank has a branch in Singapore.
The bank plans to open 190 branches in this fiscal and another 220 in 2011-12.
Bhasin said that 80 per cent of the branches would be outside the southern part of India, which has hitherto been the stronghold of the bank.
At present, the bank has 1,756 branches.
“Our aim is to have 2,000 branches in the next couple of years,” Bhasin said.
