Bank of Baroda to open 15 new international branches this fiscal

State-run lender Bank of Baroda today said it plans to open 15 new international branches this fiscal, all of them in countries where it already has a presence.

"We have plans to open new branches for our overseas expansion but it will be in the existing countries only. It will take our total to 100 from the existing 85 branches," the bank's chairman and managing director, MD Mallya told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

The new branches will be located in Kenya, Tanzania, New Zealand, some other parts of Africa and Middle East during the year, he said.

For FY 12, the Mumbai-headquartered bank targets to maintain its net interest margin at the 3.5% levels it achieved during the January-March quarter even in a rising interest rate scenario, he said.

Mallya said in order to achieve the target, the bank will concentrate on garnering more of the cheaper Current and Savings Account (CASA) deposits.

He said the CASA component stood at 34.87% for as on March 31 and is targeting a 22-23% jump in it for FY 12, Mallya said, without giving a target for the year end composition of the total deposit pie.

Mallya said he expects credit growth for the year to be around 19-20%, with encouraging demand from the real estate sector.

"As of now we are in the beginning of the slack season. My sense is that a credit growth of 19% to 20% should be feasible during this year," he said.

"The credit demand from housing sector has been buoyant. It is only in the corporate expansion plans that we have seen some slowness," he added.

 The bank plans to set up 500 new branches in FY 12 and intends to hire 4,000 people, he said.

"We will be hiring 2,000 people at the officer level and 2,000 in the clerical level. We would like to recruit about 4,000 people every year for a couple of years," he said, adding its current attrition rate is over 15%.