'Unique progs of Vijaya Bank to continue'

The unique programmes of erstwhile Vijaya Bank will continue and will be available to customers of other two banks-Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank, said erstwhile Vijaya Bank Regional Head G M Sridhar Murthy.

The programmes include Small Road Transport Operators (SRTO) funding, plantation financing and extension activities under Vijaya Rural Development Foundation.

Murthy told mediapersons here, on Monday, that with the amalgamation of three banks, Dakshina Kannada will have a total of 93 branches of Bank of Baroda (80 branches of Vijaya Bank, five of Dena Bank and eight of Bank of Baroda).

Udupi will have 53 branches of Bank of Baroda (50 branches of Vijaya Bank, one of Dena Bank and two branches of Bank of Baroda). The three entity together has 770 branches in Karnataka, he said.

“The three entities have a business of Rs 8,080 crore in Dakshina Kannada, Rs 4,592 crore in Udupi and Rs 88,503 crore in Karnataka as on December 31, 2018.”

Bank of Baroda DGM Lalit Tyagi said the amalgamation of three banks had led to the creation of India’s second largest public sector bank. With the amalgamation, the combined bank will have over 9,500 branches, 13,400 ATMs and 85,000 employees serving 12 crore customers, constituting 9% of the India’s population.

Replying to a query, he said complete merger, including technology transfer, may take over 12 months when customer accounts of all three banks will be migrated to single core banking system. As all the three banks use the Finacle core banking solution, the transition process will be smooth, he added.

On employees’ interest, Tyagi said the employees of the amalgamated bank will benefit from the diverse opportunities provided by a larger bank with significantly expanded size and scale. The service conditions of the employees will not be impacted and the interest of employees will be protected. The best HR practices adapted by each of the banks will be considered.

It may be recalled that Vijaya Bank was established by a group of farmers led by A B Shetty on October 23, 1931, in Mangaluru.

It was nationalised in 1980. It has a network of over 2,031 branches. Dena Bank Ltd was founded on May 26, 1938, by Devkaran Nanjee under the name Devkaran Nanjee Banking Company Ltd. The Indian government nationalised it in 1969. Erstwhile Dena Bank Chief Manager Nagaraju was present.