Mangaluru: Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer, Thulasi Maddineni inaugurated the 40th branch of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) in Mangaluru yesterday, the second in Karnataka after Bengaluru.
BMB’s Executive Director, S.M. Swathi. Officers and staff from other public sector banks from Mangaluru, the cradle of banking industry, were present.
Maddineni, speaking after the inaugural, wished that the bank opened 1,000 branches in the next five years, giving the much needed fillip to women. And these branches should come up in Tier 2 and 3 cities as well as rural areas. Despite accounting for 50 per cent of the population, the potential of women is yet to be utilized and the BMB is a right move, she said.
Plans are afoot to open 40 more branches this fiscal, including 20 in rural areas said Ms Swathi the Executive Director. The Bank welcomes men, but women are the preferred customers. BMB offers additional 0.5 per cent interest to women for term deposits while for savings bank accounts, the rate of interest is 4.5 per cent for balance up to Rs. 1 lakh and 5 per cent for balance above Rs. 1 lakh, she said.
Ms. Swathi said BMB’s Annapoorna, Shrungar and Parivarsh credit schemes, financing catering, beauty care and crèches respectively for women, have been receiving overwhelming response. With women-centric focus, BMB opened in November 2013 has the arduous task of building the brand name, she said.
According to Ms Swathi, the Bank had done a business of Rs. 930 crore till December 2014 in the present fiscal including Rs. 610 crore deposits and Rs. 320 crore lending. Against the target of Rs. 800 crore deposit and Rs. 500 crore advances set by the government, the bank aims at collecting Rs. 1,000 crore deposits and lending Rs. 800 crore loan, she said.
About 300 people, including 100 on deputation from other banks, are working with BMB and the Bank aims to increase the work-force to 500 by March. Though women employees constitute 80 per cent of the work-force, the bank cannot shut doors for male employees, she added.
