Addressing a press conference here, Allen C A Pereira, chairman and managing director, BoM, said the bank posted a net profit of Rs 137.31 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2009 compared to Rs 55.99 crore in the year ago period. Total income rose to Rs 1,321.92 crore from Rs 1,049.11 crore in the same quarter last year. At a meeting held on Thursday, the board of directors of the bank recommended a dividend of 15 per cent (Rs 1.50 per equity share) for the year ended March 31, 2009.
Regarding the bank’s expansion plans, Pereira said, “We plan to launch around 75 new branches across the country in the current fiscal.” BoM currently has 1,421 branches across the country.
“There are around 58 loss-making branches but there are no plans to shut any of them,” he said. An online trading facility was also in the pipeline, he said.
The waiver that the bank has provided to small and marginal farmers would amount to Rs 218 crore, Pereira said.
Even as other banks are downsizing owing to the global economic downturn, BoM plans to hire significantly over the next few months.
“At present, we have around 13,900 employees and by March 2010, we will scale up that number to well over 14,000. Recently, as many as 100 specialists have been absorbed. We will recruit 175 MBA graduates, who will come in handy to enhance our marketing, credit growth and so on. We aim to hire 24 chartered accountants and around 500 clerical staff,” said Pereira.
BoM aims at becoming a 100 per cent Core Banking Solution (CBS) bank by December this year.
“Our staff is being trained and the systems upgraded. Though this will lead to lesser requirement of manpower, personnel will be used for other activities,” he said.