Public sector lender Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) on Monday said it will rationalise the number of its regional offices by closing 10 such offices to improve efficiency.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

"Our bank at its meeting held on December 12, 2015, decided to rationalise the number of regional offices in the country by reducing 10 regional offices from existing 59. The estimated date of closure is March 1, 2016," Indian Overseas Bank said in a clarification to the BSE.

It further said, "The closure of regional offices is for optimum utilisation of resources and is an administrative decision within the bank... it will result in substantial reduction in administrative costs."

ALSO READ: Indian Overseas Bank to raise Rs 1,570 crore through public offer

Indian Overseas Bank said it has 59 regional offices and seven zonal offices, which provide support and guidance to branches, which are undertaking business activities and are required to monitor the performance of branches.

In October last year, IOB said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated a prompt corrective action on the bank. The RBI specified certain regulatory trigger points, as a part of Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, in terms of three parameters -- Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR), net Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and Return on Assets (RoA), for initiation of certain structured and discretionary actions in respect of banks hitting such trigger points.

Gross NPA of the bank rose to 9.40% for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. IOBs gross non-performing assets rose to 8.30% at the end of March 31, 2015, from 4.84% a year ago, according to the provisional RBI data taking into account domestic operations of banks.

At 1309 hours, the shares of Indian Overseas Bank were trading down 0.84% or Rs 0.25 at Rs 29.35 per scrip intraday on the BSE.