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Mangalore, Sept. 18

If a person in your family is admitted to the hospital and you are making all efforts to raise money in the middle of night with no solution in sight, the new `crisis financing' scheme of the Mumbai-based Saraswat Cooperative Bank Ltd could be a major relief.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Mr E.K. Thakur, Chairman of the bank, said that this 24X7 scheme is being introduced keeping in mind the needs of the lower middle and the working class to raise money in cases of emergencies.The bank will launch `Apathi Nirvahan Hana Yojana' in Mangalore on September 19 to mark the opening of four branches in Mangalore. One of the four branches in Mangalore will be open 24X7 to handle such situations. Terming this as one of the first schemes of its kind, Mr Thakur said gradually the bank will introduce this service in other branches in India.

Mr Thakur said that this scheme is aimed at supporting people in distress in situations such as hospitalisation and the immediate upfront payment associated with it. A maximum of Rs 50,000 will be granted for each person for emergency and crisis situations. The money will be given immediately if the person is the customer of the bank. The bank will follow the regular KYC norms in case of non-customers, he said.

Business target

The bank, which has crossed a business of Rs 21,000 crore, is planning to achieve business of Rs 25,000 crore by 2011. The bank has been registering zero net NPA for the past five years.

To a query, he said that the bank has been receiving proposals by various UCBs for merging them with Saraswat Bank.

As a strategy of inorganic growth and to protect the deposits of the hapless depositors of weak UCBs, the bank has acquired seven UCBs till now. The bank is waiting for RBI's nod for acquiring Anyonya Co-operative Bank, the country's oldest cooperative bank.

Of the 184 branches of the bank, 96 are from the merged banks. The bank, which has five branches in Karnataka, will open more branches in Bangalore in the next 45 days, he added.

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