PNB to raise Rs 4,000 crore from bonds

SAHARANPUR (UP): State-run lender Punjab National Bank plans to raise Rs 4,000 crore through bonds to meet its credit needs.
    
"The bank has space of Rs 4,000 crore. I have asked treasury whenever they feel appropriate, the bank would raise funds," PNB Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty said here.
    
The Delhi-based bank has raised Rs 1,100 crore in the past few months, he said. In December, the bank raised Rs 800 crore through bonds. Of this, Rs 500 crore was raised from Upper Tier-II Bonds through private placement. Another Rs 300 crore was raised from Tier-I Perpetual Bonds.
    
Meanwhile, the bank launched its third pilot project on financial inclusion here. So far, the bank had been focusing on the rural poor. In the next two months, the bank would open specialised branches for the urban poor, he said.
    
The bank aims to open 10 lakh zero balance accounts this fiscal. "In the first nine months of this fiscal, we have opened around three lakh no-frill accounts. In the next three months, another seven lakh such account holders would be added," he said.
    
Financial inclusion, he said, involves providing banking facility to rural populace through branch-less banking. Under the financial inclusion project, the bank would utilise the services of business correspondents for opening zero balance accounts of the rural poor.