Indian Bank to open branch in Jaffna

Indian Bank to open branch in Jaffna

Public sector lender, Indian Bank wishes
to expand its overseas reach. The Chennai based bank is all set to open a full
fledged branch in Jaffna,
which is the capital of the northern province
of Sri Lanka.

This would be the second branch of the bank in the country.
It already has a branch in Colombo.

After SriLanka,
the bank is targeting Jakarta in Indonesia. The
branch is Jakarta
is expected to be the representative office.

“We have got all necessary clearances from different departments
of the Indian government including the finance ministry’s go-ahead to RBI. We
are expecting to get the licence within a fortnight’s time. In such an
eventuality, we are hopeful of
setting up a branch there by November,”
TM Bhasin, chairman & managing
director of Indian Bank, said.

While talking about the idea behind opening a branch in Jaffna, Bhasin
said, “There are a lot of
opportunities coming in Jaffna.
About Rs 1,000 crore has been
earmarked for housing development in Jaffna
— mostly for rehabilitation of the Indians. Besides,
there are a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurship development”.