Pic: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Jun 24: At the annual general body meeting of Syndicate Bank held at Manipal on Monday June 23, an additional dividend of 13% over and above the already announced interim dividend of 15% was declared. The meeting also gave its nod for issuing eight crore shares of the bank through Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) to private/government financial institutions for augmenting the capital base of the bank, as the environment at present is not conducive for public issue and also because public issue involves lot of expenditure. The QIP can later be converted into public issue.

Giving these details at a press conference held here on Monday June 23, executive director of the bank George Joseph said, that the year 2007-08 was a landmark year for the bank on various fronts. The Bank recorded a net of profit of Rs 848 crore, a jump of 18.44% over the previous year. Net worth of the Bank shot up to Rs 3862 crore as compared to Rs 3185 crore in the previous fiscal. Gross non-performing assets of the bank have been pegged at 2.71% as against 2.95% the previous year. The CBS network covers 1508 out of the total 2174 branches of the bank, which handle 96% of the business handled by the bank, he explained.

For added customer convenience, the bank increased the ATMs owned by it from 701 to 1000 in 519 centres, introduced SMS banking during the year, launched sale of 99.99% purity gold coins imported from Switzerland backed by purity certificates and also began SyndSuraksha scheme under which savings bank holders of the bank are covered under by insurance with tie up with Life Insurance Corporation of India, for a small premium. The bank will continue to lay thrust on core deposits base of the bank and plans to add five lakh new women accounts in the two months period during which a campaign for the same is under way, he added.

Under the Human Resources initiatives, the bank, after about 20 years gap, initiated recruitment process for empoying officers, specialist officers and clerical staff numbering 2085, including campus recruitment. The bank plans to reach a figure of Rs.112500 crore under deposits and Rs 77500 crore advances to take the total global business of the bank to Rs 1,90,000 crores by next year, Joseph said.

Senior General Manager B Pramod and general manager B S Surendra were present at the press conference.