Federal Bank Completes 50 Years in Hyderabad, Plans to Open 12 New Branches

Hyderabad: Private sector lender Federal Bank, which celebrated 50 years of its presence in Hyderabad on Thursday, said it will open 10 to 12 new branches this year, followed by a similar number next year. It is eyeing a full-fledged zone for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in future, said Shyam Srinivasan, managing director and chief executive officer.

It now has 37 branches in Telangana, offering a comprehensive range of banking services. Its Corporate Institutional Banking, Commercial Banking, Treasury Sales, and Centralised Retail Credit Hub teams are located in Hyderabad. With a loan book of close to Rs 10,500 crore in Hyderabad, Federal Bank is focused on retail banking, he said.

“We are doing well. What we did in the first 45 years, we did the same in the last five years,” he said about the bank’s growth.

On the repo rate kept unchanged, he said the RBI action was on expected lines in view of the inflation trends.

On computing inflation numbers, the official said short-term numbers may be removed but if they sustain for long, they have to be factored in. “Monsoons have been quite strong. There have been challenges before that. It was very hot. Weather is playing a major part in arriving at the various indicators. Some argue that a growth that is sans jobs is happening. It may be true in certain pockets but I think financial services is becoming a big provider of jobs. If infrastructure is going to grow, that will be a big provider of jobs. As long as capital expenditure is happening and big-ticket investments are happening, I think jobs keep coming. Yes, creating jobs is certainly a big challenge for the country. We have to create jobs every year. That is something that India has to push hard,” he said.

“We have a 1,000 seater facility in Vizag for customer support,” he said. In all, it has 1,508 banking outlets. The total business mix of deposits and advances is about Rs 4.62 lakh crore as of March this year. Its capital adequacy ratio (CRAR) is 16.13 per cent.