NSB targets Rs 58 b deposits by 2012

Indunil HEWAGE

National Savings Bank(NSB) was ready to further expand its presence across the country with new branches, products to be introduced in the coming months.

“Our main task is to bring back the bank to normalcy thereby regaining public confidence in the banking system in the face of adverse media reports on the NSB, The Finance share deal. If the stock market is favourable to us, the bank will definitely make huge profits and can go ahead with our future expansion plans, “newly appointed NSB Chairman Sunil S Sirisena told Daily News Business. Being Sri Lanka’s most secured bank, NSB has plans to implement new and different systems to be on par with global banks and it is in the process of studying how fast these systems can be implemented in Sri Lanka.

NSB has 16 million deposit accounts in Sri Lanka, with almost Rs 400 billion of depositor money. NSB also has a 16-17 % market share in the overall deposit accounts segment in the country.

However, according to Sirisena, the bank has also achieved a Rs 500 billion asset base and has set a target of achieving deposits to the value of Rs 58 billion by the end of 2012.

Plans are afoot to increase the entire NSB branch network across the country to 250 before the end of next year. We can see a growth in our customer base when we open up new branches in the country.

People like to open new accounts with us; our target is to encourage small people who are

already having an account with us to deposit at least another Rs 50 or Rs 100 with us.

We are also going to have a NSB bank in each and every school in the country, with the target of capturing 50 % share in this segment. In addition, NSB has plans to become the market leader in the foreign remittance segment with the use of its postal network.

Highlighting the challenges of the local banking industry, Sirisena said that every bank was trying to increase their market share specially in terms of deposit segments. Customers are forced to deposit their money in various banks by giving them higher interest rates for their deposits. This price war would definitely have a negative impact on the inflation of the country thereby demoralizing the entire economic system. However, NSB is well positioned to react to these prevailing market forces and to take the bank to the next level.

Picture by- Nissanka Wijeratne